The TAO array is a major component of the El Nino Observing System.

El Nino is a disturbance in the tropical Pacific characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures, whereas La Nina is characterized by unusually cold ocean temperatures.

El Nino and La Nina have important consequences for weather around the globe, including:

Floods

Droughts

Wild Fires

Hurricanes

Tornadoes

Ecosystems and Fisheries

The TAO project has developed an array of moored buoys across the Pacific Basin to monitor El Nino. The array took 10 years to build.

In this animation of the equatorial Pacific Ocean, the red colors show the strong El Nino warm event in the eastern Pacific...

followed by a strong La Nina cold event, indicated by the blue colors.

TAO buoys are deployed by ships, and are anchored to the ocean floor.

Instruments on the buoys monitor weather and ocean data, which are transmitted several times a day to NOAA's polar orbiting satellites.

The buoy data is relayed from the satellite to shore, where it is made available through the Web and transmitted via the Global Telecommunications System to meteorological centers world wide.

Uses of TAO data include:

Weather Prediction

Scientific Research

Agriculture

Fisheries

Marine Ecology

Energy and Water Resources

Economics

Education

Public Health

and Recreation

The Global Tropical Moored Buoy Array is a multi-national effort to provide data in real-time for climate research and forecasting.

Major components include the TAO/TRITON array in the Pacific,

PIRATA in the Atlantic, and

RAMA in the Indian Ocean.