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TIP 7 Executive summary | |
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Executive Summary The seventh session of the TAO Implementation Panel (TIP-7) was held at the Hotel Golf Intercontinental in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on 11-13 November 1998. The meeting was held in conjunction with the fifth session of the Pilot Research Moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic (PIRATA) which took place at the same location on 9-10 November 1998. The meetings were hosted by L'Institut Francais de Recherche pour le Developpement (IRD/ORSTOM), and by the Centre Ivorien de Recherche Oceanographique (CRO). The purposes of TIP-7 were to review the present status of the TAO array; to address technical and logistic issues related to its maintenance; to provide a forum for discussion of enhancements and expansions of the array to other tropical oceans; and to promote the use of the TAO data for research and operational activities. An additional purpose of TIP-7 was to examine the dual themes of the hydrologic cycle over the ocean, and the importance of salinity variability in the climate system. Over 40 participants from 14 nations attended TIP-7.
The meeting opened with a review of variations in the tropical Pacific since TIP-6 (held in November 1997). In the past year, the tropical Pacific has switched from extreme warm El Niņo conditions to cold La Niņa conditions. Data from the TAO array captured the dramatic termination of the 1997-98 El Niņo in May-June 1998, when an unprecedented 8°C drop occurred in 30 days in the equatorial cold tongue. ENSO Forecast models suggest cold La Niņa conditions will persist through boreal spring 1999. The panel discussed issues of instrumentation, array maintenance, ship time requirements, vandalism and damage to the buoys, outreach efforts to fishing communities, ocean velocity and salinity measurements, TAO enhancements and expansions, and data dissemination via the World Wide Web and the Global Telecommunications System (GTS). Updates were presented on Japan's TRITON array of moored buoys, the first four of which were deployed in the western Pacific in March 1998; on the PIRATA array (supported by France, Brazil, and the U.S.) with 5 of 12 planned sites occupied in the tropical Atlantic during 1998; and on Taiwan's moored buoy program as part of the South China Sea Monsoon Experiment (SCSMEX). The panel was also briefed on a multi-year mooring program along the Pacific Coast of Chile, and on the status of Indian National Data Buoy Programme. In response to a recommendation from the sixth session of the TAO Implementation Panel (TIP-6), it was reported that surface meteorological data from Indian moored buoys in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea will be available on the GTS by the end of 1998. Presentations on national and international climate programs included CLIVAR, GOOS, and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). Science presentations addressed variability associated with the 1997-98 ENSO cycle, ENSO forecasting, the Madden-Julian Oscillation, salinity variability in all three tropical oceans, satellite and in situ rainfall measurements in the tropical Pacific, model development and validation using TAO data, and large scale ocean current dynamics. Two recommendations emerged from TIP-7 regarding salinity. One dealt with a pilot project for assembling all available ship-based thermosalinograph data in the tropical Pacific for 1991-98 at ORSTOM/Noumea. The other is for GOOS, GCOS, and CLIVAR to endorse proposed surface salinity satellite missions. These recommendations built on similar recommendations from TIP-6 calling for additional surface and subsurface salinity sensors be added to selected moorings as a contribution an emerging salinity monitoring effort which includes VOS, S-PALACE, and other platforms. A third recommendation called for a UN resolution to help alleviate the serious loss of mooring data and equipment that is plaguing TAO, PIRATA and other climate-oriented mooring programs. |
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