The TAO of NOAA
By Larry Simoneaux

Every now and then you’ll see a television weather forecaster pointing to a computer screen showing a colorful blob of water moving across the Pacific Ocean.  The forecaster will then spend some time explaining to you whether or not we’re about to experience an El Nino or La Nina “event” this year.

What you should know is that the information used to generate that forecast comes from one of the most effective and least known government research projects around.  This would be the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) project.  It is – and has been – run from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) facility on Lake Washington.

The TAO project consists of an array of 70 buoys located within 10 degrees of the equator.  The buoys are anchored in place and are set up like a series of picket fences between the Galapagos Islands and New Guinea.

The buoys measure wind direction and speed, air temperature and humidity, and the temperature of the ocean itself at various depths from the surface to 500 meters below.  Several of these buoys can also measure ocean currents, rainfall, and solar radiation.  All of this data is relayed to scientists around the world every day.

For the science teachers out there and the more curious among you, more information than you can imagine is available on an internet site explaining this project ( www.pmel.noaa.gov/tao ).  If this address doesn’t work, try typing in some combination of TAO, NOAA, PMEL.  Be careful not to leave it at TAO, though, unless you’re really interested in ancient eastern philosophies.

I first became acquainted with this program back in 1991.  At that time, the complete network of buoys had not yet been installed, but the ones that had been needed to be visited and repaired on a regular basis.
As you might imagine, anything placed on the ocean is going to eventually need fixing.  Wind, waves, storms, salt water, lightning strikes, curious fishing vessels, clumsy fishing vessels, etc., all take their toll.  Thus regular repairs are scheduled and NOAA vessels are sent out to visit buoys needing maintenance.

Back then, my ship was one of several that were occasionally tasked to do this.

What we did was, basically, load the ship with a grunch (nautical term meaning “one heck of a lot”) of spare parts and a mess (nautical term meaning “numerous”) of technicians and scientists.  Then we followed the project instructions that’d been issued to us.  These were usually written in terms I could understand, “Larry, take your boat, drive to this place, stop, tell the technicians you’ve arrived, then go to your room and read a book or something while they work.”

We were, basically, NOAA’s version of a floating repair truck – well equipped to fix whatever was broken.

At times, the project could get a bit tedious – not while you were on site, but while you were driving from one buoy to another.  On the website, the buoys look like they’re pretty close together.  However, as my sea-daddy, Steve Clark, used to tell me, “You gotta remember scale, Larry.  On these charts, one inch can mean 500 miles.” And these buoys are all a couple of inches apart.

Once onsite, though, things got pretty busy.  Getting all of the gear ready.  Putting boats into the water.  Making sure that everyone in or around the buoy was safe.  Maneuvering the ship to actually pick up the buoy and put it on deck if need be.

And, of course, doing some recreational fishing.

As in all things oceanic, if you put something solid in the water, eventually, little critters start growing on it.  These little critters attract little fish that eat them.  The little fish then attract bigger fish that eat them.  The bigger fish attract sharks.  All of the above activity attract sea birds.  Pretty soon, you have one heck of a little community out in the middle of nowhere.

If you’re not involved in repairs or data collection, dropping a line into the water to catch a Mahi-Mahi, a Wahoo, or a tuna is a great way to burn a few hours.

On our ship, the rule was that the first fish caught always went directly onto the barbecue grill to provide snacks for the folks working on deck.
One other point to note is that, as an extra benefit, NOAA also takes teachers to sea to allow them to see, firsthand, what oceanic research is all about.  These teachers can actually go online and teach their classes from the ship.

Visit the site.  Wander around it a bit.  Guarantee you‘ll enjoy it.  It’s something we’ve done that we can point to with a bit of pride.
Great project.  Important data.  Good people. Money well-spent.
And, yes, I did put my book down every now and then to wet a line.