The role of drifting buoys in the Tropical Ocean global atmosphere (TOGA) program

The Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere (TOGA) Program was started in January of 1985 as part of the World Climate Research Project (WCRP).It is designed to improve our understanding of events in the tropical oceans and global atmosphere that significantly influence predictability of seasonal to interannual climatic variations. To support TOGA, the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) was assigned the responsibility of procuring, deploying, and maintaining a grid pattern of 50 drifting buoys throughout the oceans of the Southern Hemisphere. From October I984 through June 1985, NDBC deployed 64 buoys in the southern oceans. This paper describes the buoys, addresses the extensive logistics program necessary for worldwide deployment, and evaluates buoy performance.