Stratus 13 thirteenth setting of the Stratus Ocean Reference Station cruise on board RV Ron Brown February 25 - March 15, 2014 Valparaiso, Chile - 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 January. This cruise was conducted on the NOAA vessel Ron Brown. During the 2014 cruise on the Ron Brown to the ORS Stratus site, the primary activities were the recovery of the previous (Stratus 12) WHOI surface mooring, which was adrift since January 25 2014 and drifting northwest, deployment of the new Stratus 13 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 subsurface floats were also launched along the track.