Stratus Ocean Reference Station (20⁰S, 85⁰W)
Subtitle: mooring recovery and deployment cruise, R/V Revelle Cruise Dana 03, November 10-November 26, 2003
By: by Lara Hutto ... [et al.].
Contributors: Hutto, Lara.; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Upper Ocean Processes Group.
Series: WHOI -- 2004-04.; UOP -- 2004-01.; Technical report / Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; WHOI (Series) -- 2004-04.; Technical report (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution); UOP report -- 2004-01.
Publisher: WHOI
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Woods Hole, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 128
Subjects: Roger Revelle (Ship); Clouds -- Pacific Coast (South America) -- Observations.; Marine meteorology -- Pacific Coast (South America) -- Observations.; Ocean-atmosphere interaction -- Pacific Coast (South America) -- Obsrvations.; Oceanography -- Research -- Pacific Coast (South America); Oceanographic instruments -- Observations.; Deep-sea moorings.
Genres: Observations.; Obsrvations.
Description: The Ocean Reference Station at 20 S, 85 W under the stratus clouds west of northern Chile and Peru is being maintained to provide ongoing, climate-quality records of surface meteorology, of air-sea fluxes of heat, freshwater, and momentum, and of upper ocean temperature, salinity, and velocity variability. The Stratus Ocean Reference Station, hereafter ORS Stratus, is supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations (NOAA) Climate Observation Program. It is recovered and redeployed annually, with cruises that have come in October or November. During the November 2003 cruise of Scripps Institution of Oceanography's R/V Roger Revelle to the ORS Stratus site, the primary activities where the recovery of the WHOI surface mooring that had been deployed in October 2002, the deployment of a new WHOI surface mooring at that site, the in-situ calibration of the buoy meteorological sensors by comparison with instrumentation put on board by Chris Fairall of the NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory (ETL), and observations of the stratus clouds and lower atmosphere by NOAA ETL and Jason Tomlinson from Texas A&M. The ORS Stratus buoys are equipped with two Improved Meteorological systems, which provide surface wind speed and direction, air temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, incoming shortwave radiation, incoming longwave radiation, precipitation rate, and sea surface temperature. The IMET data are made available in near real time using satellite telemetry. The mooring line carries instruments to measure ocean salinity, temperature, and currents. On some deployments, additional instrumentation is attached to the mooring to measure rainfall and bio-optical variability. The ETL instrumentation used during the 2003 cruise included a cloud radar, radiosonde balloons, and sensors for mean and turbulent surface meteorology. In addition to this work, buoy work was done in support of the Ecuadorian Navy Institute of Oceanography (INOCAR) and of the Chilean Navy Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service (SHOA). The surface buoy, oceanographic instrumentation, and upper 500 m of an INOCAR surface mooring at 2S, 84W that had been vandalized were recovered and transferred to the Ecuadorian Navy vessel B. A. E. Calicuchima. A tsunami warning mooring was installed at 75W, 20S for SHOA. SHOA personnel onboard were trained during the cruise by staff from the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) and National Data Buoy Center (NDBC). The cruise hosted two teachers participating in NOAA's Teacher at Sea Program, Deb Brice from San Marcos, California and Viviana Zamorano from Arica, Chile.
Notes: "March 2004."

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Funded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Contract no. NA17RJ1223.