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Summary: The Global Tropical Moored Buoy Array (GTMBA)
The core in situ observing system of the tropical ocean mixed layer and air-sea interface is
a suite of moored buoys. Since the 1980s, NOAA/PMEL and JISAO scientists, working with
the broader scientific community, have built a moored buoy array (Figure 1) in all three
tropical oceans to measure the oceanic and meteorological variables responsible for SST
variations. Components of the GTMBA include the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean/Triangle
Trans-Ocean Buoy Network (TAO/TRITON) in the Pacific, the Prediction and Research
Moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic (PIRATA), and the Research Moored Array for African-
Asian-Australian Monsoon Analysis and Prediction (RAMA) in the Indian Ocean.
Figure 1: The evolving GTMBA over the past decades showing both existing and
planned moorings to be completed over the next several years. The upper panel
shows the arrays as they existed in 1999; the lower panel shows the arrays existing
in 2009 plus planned additions.
The TAO/TRITON array was developed during the 10-year (1985-94) Tropical Ocean Global
Atmosphere (TOGA) program for improved detection, understanding, and prediction of
ENSO. It now consists of 67 surface moorings plus 5 subsurface ADCP moorings on the
equator (Figure 1); the 12 western Pacific buoys are contributed by Japan. Five moorings
near the equator were upgraded to Flux Reference Sites with enhanced measurements of
downwelling long wave radiation and barometric pressure, as well as additional sensors in
the upper ocean for finer vertical resolution measurements of temperature, salinity and
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