ESSO - Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services

Surface Mooring

Implementation of moored-buoy array for the Indian Ocean in support of climate studies. The focus is on the open ocean north of 30 ° S. Special efforts will be needed to address western and eastern boundary currents, the Indonesian Throughflow and coastal dynamics.

The moored-buoy array will be designed and implemented according to the following Principles:

• Design of the array will build on the experience gained in developing previous and ongoing moored-buoy programmes in the Indian Ocean and on the experience gained during TOGA and CLIVAR in designing and implementing TAO/TRITON and PIRATA;
• The array will focus on those aspects of ocean dynamics, ocean-atmosphere interaction and climate variation that require high temporal resolution, multi-variate time-series, which moored measurements are uniquely suited to address;
• The array will complement other components (satellite, in situ) of the Indian Ocean Observing System;
• The array will be long-term and sustained;
• Real-time data transmission will be a high priority in order to support operational climate analyses and forecasts;
• Data will be freely and openly exchanged via the GTS and the WWW.

The flux reference moorings located in several key climatologically distinct regions, including:

• Bay of Bengal
• Arabian Sea
• Equator
• Region of subduction in the southeastern basin (see the CEC in section 6) (25°S, 97°E)
• The ridge in the thermocline near 8°S, where ocean dynamics affect SST
• Region of cyclone formation east of Madagascar
• Region of maximum rainfall south of the equator near 95°E.