The Ocean Reference Station at 20°S, 85°W under the stratus clouds west of northern Chile is
being maintained to provide ongoing climate-quality records of surface meteorology, air-sea
fluxes of heat, freshwater, and momentum, and of upper ocean temperature, salinity, and velocity
variability. The Stratus Ocean Reference Station (ORS Stratus) is supported by the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Observation Program. It is
recovered and redeployed annually, with past cruises that have come between October and May.
This cruise was conducted on the Chilean research vessel Cabo de Hornos.
During the 2016 cruise on the Cabo de Hornos to the ORS Stratus site, the primary activities
were the recovery of the previous (Stratus 14) WHOI surface mooring, deployment of the new
Stratus 15 WHOI surface mooring, in-situ calibration of the buoy meteorological sensors by
comparison with instrumentation installed on the ship, CTD casts near the moorings. Surface
drifters and ARGO floats were also launched along the track.
