Development of an Indian Ocean Moored Buoy Array for Climate

Paul Freitag and Mike McPhadenNOAA/PMEL

NOAA Climate Observation Program 3rd Annual System Review

Silver Spring, MD

April 25-27, 2005

Indian Ocean Science DriversImproved description, understanding and ability to predict:

Seasonal monsoon variability

Monsoon <=> ENSO interactions

Indian Ocean Dipole (El Niño-like phenomenon in the Indian Ocean)

Intraseasonal oscillations and far field impacts (west coast US rainfall, hurricane formation, ENSO)

Warming trends since the 1970s.Indian Ocean Dipole

Efforts to develop an Indian Ocean component to the Global Ocean Observing system for climate studies are accelerating

Compelling unanswered scientific questions;

Potential societal benefits from improved prediction;

One of the most poorly sampled regions of the world ocean;

Growing investments from India (2 new ships & major buoy program planned) and Japan (new 10 year Asian Monsoon Observing Initiative);

Summit on Earth Observations (July 2003) & Global Earth Observing System (GEO) establishes an agenda for international cooperation.

Chronology of Indian Ocean Moored Buoy Array Planning Efforts

Fifth Session of the TAO Implementation Panel (TIP-5), (Joint with First Session of the CLIVAR Asian-Australian Monsoon Panel), Goa, India, 18-21 November 1996.

Sustained Observations for Climate of the Indian Ocean (SOCIO) and TIP-9, Perth, Australia, 13-17 November 2000.

First Conference of the Indian Ocean Global Ocean Observing System (IOGOOS), Grand Baie, Mauritius, 4-9 November 2002.

First Session of the CLIVAR/GOOS Indian Ocean Panel (IOP-1), Pune, India, 18-20 February 2004.

Second Session of the CLIVAR/GOOS Indian Ocean Panel (IOP-2), Hobart, Australia, 30 Mar-2 Apr 2005.

CLIVAR/IOC Indian Ocean Panel Terms of Reference

Develop, coordinate and implement a plan for a sustained ocean observing system for the Indian Ocean to…provide ocean observations needed for climate variability research…and operational ocean applications…particularly with regard to ocean-state estimation and climate prediction.

Draft Strategy for Integrated Indian Ocean Observing System

First Session of CLIVAR/IOC Indian

Ocean Panel

23-27 February 2004Pune, India

ftp://ftp.marine.csiro.au/pub/meyers/Implementation%20Plan/

Draft Strategy for Indian Ocean Moored Buoy Array

First Session of CLIVAR/GOOS Indian Ocean Panel23-27 February 2004

Pune, India

Dynamical Model Design Studies

Courtesy of Gabe Vecchi, GFDL

Log(Signal to Noise) 1986-2002 100m Temperature Anomaly “O.I.” of sub-sampled data

Rationale for Flux Sites

Courtesy of Lisan Yu, WHOI

Moored Measurement SuiteStandard

Met: Wind, RH, AT, SWR, Rain

Ocean: SST, SSS, T(z:10 depths), S(z: 5 depths), P (z: 2 depths); v (10 m)

Flux Sites: Standard plus--

Met: LWR, BP

Ocean: Additional T(z), S(z), v (z) in upper 100 m

ORV Sagar Kanya Cruise9 October-17 November 2004

41 Day Cruise 4 ATLAS & 1 ADCP

PMEL in collaboration with the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) and the National Center for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR), Goa, India.

First Data fromIndian Ocean

ATLAS Moorings

Deployed22 October 2004

Feb-Mar 2005

NE monsoon winds (easterlies) develop

Shear reversal 20-100m (SEC/EUC)

Thermocline tilts down towards west

SSTs warm rather than

cool as easterly (i.e. upwelling

favorable) winds develop

in Feb-Mar 05. Why?

All surface heat flux components can be estimated at the 80.5°E flux

reference site

SW radiation modulated by clouds; cloudy periods often associated with rain

events

Evaporative heat flux mainly controlled by wind speed variations

Surface Mixed Layer Heat Balance

Mixed Layer Heat Storage vs. Surface Heat Flux

Std Dev Qadj=68 W m-2, Std Dev Storage=142 W m-2, Correlation=0.40

Zonal Temperature Advection?

~20 cm s-1

February 2005 SST

Salinity Time Series

World Ocean Atlas, Jan-Mar SSS

Existing and Planned Moorings, 2005

Indian Ocean Moored Buoy Data Assembly Center (DAC)

Modeled after TAO/ TRITON and PIRATA data processing and dissemination systems.

PMEL and JAMSTEC initial contributors.

Hosted at PMEL; Mirror sites outside the US (e.g. INCOIS in India).

http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tao/disdel/disdel-v57.html

Challenges: Fishing Vandalism

1.5°N, 80.5°E ATLAS stopped transmitting on 23 Jan 05 after drifting 35 nm to SW.

0°, 80.5E lost winds and SW radiation on 21 Mar 05.

Long Line

Purse Seine

&Pole/Line

Bigeye

Yellowfin

Skipjack

Tuna Catch 1989-1993

Challenges: Ship Time

Requirements:

180 days per year (est.)

Assumes 1-year mooring design lifetime and semi-annual servicing cruises

Availability:

2005--Mirai (JAMSTEC), Sagar Kanya (DOD)

2006--Mirai, Sagar Kanya, Ocean#1 (SOA)?; Atalante or Suroit (IRD)?

Challenges: Funding

“$3.2 million to expand the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean array and the Pilot Research Moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic into the Indian Ocean. This expansion will enhance NOAA's capability to accurately document the state of ocean climactic conditions and improve seasonal forecasting capability.”(http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2005/s2386.htm)

Other activities covered by this funding:

Support the technological development of the next generation of moored buoys. Add salinity sensors to the TAO array to improve seasonal-interannual forecasting. Upgrades for 4 TAO and 3 PIRATA moorings to ocean reference station quality for satellite and model research Providing 4 additional buoys for the PIRATA array in the hurricane-genesis region of the Atlantic Ocean for improved understanding of ocean-atmosphere interactions on hurricane development.

President Bush’s FY06 Budget for NOAAClimate Observations and Services

Challenges: Summary

Ship Time

Fishing Vandalism

Funding

International Coordination

System Integration

Data Management