Stratus 16 Sixteenth Setting of the Stratus Ocean Reference Station Cruise on Board RV Ronald H. Brown May 5 - 20, 2017 Rodman, Panama - Arica, Chile

Abstract

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 NOAA research vessel Ronald H. Brown. During the 2017 cruise on the Ronald H. Brown to the ORS Stratus site, the primary activities were the recovery of the previous (Stratus 15) WHOI surface mooring, deployment of the new Stratus 16 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.