NDBC TAO: Mooring Information

Mooring Information

Go to:Historical Standard ATLAS Moorings - Current Meter Moorings - Surface Mooring Hardware - Sensor Heights and Depths - TRITON Moorings

NEXTGENERATION ATLAS MOORINGS

Schematic of NextGeneration ATLAS mooring

Design of the relatively inexpensive ATLAS (Autonomous Temperature Line Acquisition System) mooring was initiated by PMEL's Engineering Development Division (EDD) in 1984 (see Standard ATLAS Moorings, below). By the mid-1990's, a reengineering effort was underway to modernize the ATLAS mooring with emphasis on:

improving data quality
adding new sensors
increasing temporal resolution of internally recorded data
improving reliability to extend system life
simplifing fabrication procedures
reducing costs

Related Links

Map of TAO/TRITON sites

Sensor specifications

Sampling specifications

Data quality control

GTS data distribution

Data telemetry

Nominal sites

Data availability

TRITON moorings

Technical drawings

This effort used as many of the components and procedures of the existing system as possible, thereby minimizing the impact on the infrastructure that supported the array.The first NextGeneration systems were deployed in the array in May 1996. The transition to NextGeneration systems throughout the array was completed in November 2001.

A significant NextGeneration ATLAS improvement over the Standard ATLAS is the incorporation of inductively coupled sensors for subsurface data. The sensors clamp onto the wire rope strength member that serves as one of the inductive elements. This simplifies fabrication, eliminating the themistor cable with its labor-intensive assembly and deployment procedures. Addressable modules on the cable allow the system to be expanded for new sensors by adding the appropriate hardware and software interfaces.

Flexibility in the design also allows the interface of additional sensors including rainfall, short-wave and long-wave radiation, barometric pressure, ocean salinity and currents. Most measurements are made at a sample rate of 10 minutes, with the exception of barometric pressure (1 hour), short-wave and long-wave radiation (2 minutes), and rainfall (1 minute). These high temporal resolution data are recorded internally and available after mooring recovery as delayed mode data.

HISTORICAL STANDARD ATLAS MOORINGS

After testing and deployment of prototype ATLAS moorings, the first elements of the large scale monitoring TAO array were deployed in the eastern Pacific in November 1984. The full TAO array was eventually completed in December 1994. The standard ATLAS mooring had a design lifetime of one year and the system proved to be robust and reliable. Over 500 Standard ATLAS moorings were deployed between 1984 and 2001. The final standard ATLAS was recovered in November 2001 and NextGeneration ATLAS moorings are now used exclusively in the TAO array.

Standard ATLAS moorings measured surface winds, air temperature, relative humidity, sea surface temperature, and ten subsurface temperatures from a 500 m long thermistor cable. Daily-mean data were telemetered to shore in near real-time via NOAA's polar-oribiting satellites and Service Argos. A small subset of hourly values (2-3 per day) coinciding with satellite passes were also transmitted in real time. Hourly values of surface data were internally recorded and available after mooring recovery.

CURRENT METER MOORINGS

Subsurface Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) moorings are deployed at a few equatorial sites (0-147E, 0-165E, 0-170W, 0-140W and 0-110W). These data are available only after the subsurface moorings are recovered. On nearby ATLAS moorings at 0-165E, 0-140W and 0-110W, upper ocean currents are also measured at 4 to 5 discrete depths in the upper 300 m using point Doppler current meters. Real-time telemetry of these currents is under development.

In the past, older style current meter moorings have been deployed at a few equatorial sites (0-156E, 0-165E, 0-140W and 0-110W). Upper ocean currents were measured at 4 to 7 discrete depths in the upper 300 m using vector-averaging mechanical current meters. In general, these moorings differed from ATLAS moorings in that no subsurface data were telemetered in real time and in that subsurface data were internally recorded at higher sample rates than Standard ATLAS systems. Between 1990 and 1995, current meter moorings were referred to as PROTEUS (PRofile TElemetry of Upper ocean currentS) moorings and included downward looking ADCP mounted in the surface toroidal float. PROTEUS mooring deployments stopped in 1995 because fish backscatter interfered with the acoustic signals and seriously contaminated the velocity measurements.

TAO SURFACE MOORING HARDWARE

The TAO surface buoy is a 2.3 m diameter fiberglass-over-foam toroid, with an aluminum tower and a stainless steel bridle. When completely rigged, the system has an air weight of approximately 660 kg, a net buoyancy of nearly 2300 kg, and an overall height of 4.9 m. The electronics tube is approximately 1.5 m long, 0.18 m diameter, and weighs 27 kg. The buoy can be seen on radar from 4-8 miles depending on sea conditions.

Non-rotating 3/8" (0.92 cm) diameter wire rope jacketed to 1/2" (1.27 cm) is used in the upper 700 meters to guard against damage from fish bite. Standard ATLAS thermistor cables are fixed to the mooring wire with wire rope clamps. Plaited 8-strand 3/4" (1.9 cm) diameter nylon line is used for the remainder of the mooring. Anchors are fabricated from scrap railroad wheels, and typically weight 1900-2000 kg. All hardware is standard equipment as used in other PMEL taut-line moorings and deployments follow the traditional anchor last routine.

Moorings are deployed in water depths between 1500 and 6000m. To ensure that the upper section of the mooring is nearly vertical a nominal scope of 0.985 (ratio of mooring length to water depth) is employed on the moorings in water depths of 1800m or more. At a few sites, slack moorings with scope 1.35 have been deployed due to either shallow bathymetry or severe current regimes. In these cases, the upper portion of the mooring is keep fairly vertical (but less so than taut-line moorings) by using a reverse catenary design.

NOMINAL HEIGHTS AND DEPTHS OF TAO SENSORS

Standard instrument heights for TAO sites: LWR is Long Wave Radiation sensor, SWR is Short Wave Radiation sensor, Rain is rain gauge, ATRH is air/relative humidity sensor, BP is Barometric Pressure sensor

All TAO sites	Wind	LWR	SWR	Rain	ATRH	BP
Height (m)	4 m	3.5 m	3.5 m	3.5 m	3 m	3 m

Standard instrument depths for TAO sites are listed below: SST is Sea Surface Temperature sensor. SSC is Sea Surface Conductiviy and temperature. T1, T2, ...., T10 are subsurface thermistors. TP9 and TP10 are subsurface temperature and pressure sensors. TC1,...,TC6 are subsurface temperature and conductivity sensors.

Pacific Ocean	SST	T1	T2	T3	T4	T5	T6	T7	T8	TP9	TP10
Depths (m) east of 155°W	1	20	40	60	80	100	120	140	180	300	500
Depths (m) at and west of 155°W	1	25	50	75	100	125	150	200	250	300	500

Atlantic Ocean	SSC	TC1	TC2	T3	T4	T5	TC6	T7	T8	TP9	TP10
Depths (m), all sites	1	20	40	60	80	100	120	140	180	300	500

Instrument depths for older current-meter sites on the equator at 156°E, 165°E, 140°W, 110°W were different from the above, and varied over time. Present NextGeneration ATLAS moorings at current meter sites measure temperatures at the standard depths above, plus a few additional depths. For graphical info on instrument depths, see the TAO data availability page. In NetCDF files used for web displays, temperatures have been regridded to the above standard depths.

TRITON MOORINGS

In October 1999, responsibility for moorings along and to the west of 156E was assumed by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) which has deployed Triangle Trans-Ocean Buoy Network (TRITON) buoys at those locations. Data from both ATLAS and TRITON moorings are merged in a common data base and available from both PMEL and JAMSTEC.