Moored Buoy

A moored buoy is an anchored surface or subsurface platform that returns continuous time series of ocean and atmosphere variables at a fixed location, the workhorse of Eulerian observation. Surface moorings carry meteorological sensors (wind, pressure, air temperature, humidity, radiation) plus subsurface temperature, salinity, and current strings, telemetering data by satellite in near real time. The tropical arrays, TAO/TRITON in the Pacific, PIRATA in the Atlantic, and RAMA in the Indian Ocean, anchor ENSO and monsoon monitoring and feed forecast models. NOAA NDBC weather buoys support marine forecasting and wave measurement. OceanSITES coordinates the global reference-station moorings.