Abstract:
A surface mooring outfitted for meteorological and oceanographic measurement was deployed near 14°50'N, 51°00'W in the
northwest tropical Atlantic on 30 March 2001. This was the initial deployment of the Northwest Tropical Atlantic Station (NTAS)
project for air–sea flux measurement. These observations will be used to investigate air–sea interaction processes related to climate
variability. The deployment was done on R/V Oceanus Cruise 365, Leg 5 by the Upper Ocean Processes Group (UOP) of the
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The 3-meter discus buoy was outfitted with two Air–Sea Interaction Meteorology
(ASIMET) systems. Each system measures, records, and transmits via Argos satellite the surface meteorological variables necessary
to compute air–sea fluxes of heat, moisture and momentum. The upper 120 m of the mooring line was outfitted with oceanographic
sensors for the measurement of temperature and velocity. This report describes the initial deployment of the NTAS mooring
(NTAS-1), including some of the pre-cruise buoy preparations and post cruise data comparisons.
