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NOAA upgrading buoys used to track El Nino, La Nina to help improve future forecasts

NOAA is upgrading its buoy system in the Pacific equatorial region, which will help forecasters track weather patterns and El Nino and La Nina events.

OREGON, USA — The Pacific fleet of buoys is getting an upgrade, those are the buoys that help forecasters determine what the ocean conditions are like. This upgrade is coming at a great time, because they also monitor El Nino and La Nina weather patterns. Now a group of researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are about to outfit dozens of buoys to better track ocean conditions and weather patterns out in the Pacific Ocean.

The new upgrade is going to involve a system of 55 buoys scattered around the ocean called TAO, that’s the tropical observing system NOAA uses to track conditions.

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“TAO is considered the backbone of the tropical Pacific observing system it provides that observing those day to day changes,” said Karen Grissom with the National Buoy Date Center.

For the first times in decades, they are also going to be outfitting the buoys to better help forecasters determine ocean temperatures like La Nina, which is what we’ve been seeing here in the Pacific Northwest the last three years, with cooler and wetter weather. What weather pattern are expected to see next? An El Nino weather pattern is already setting up said Grissom.

“That chance is increasing to 90 percent of being moderate to sever El Nino by the end of the year according to the Climate Prediction Center,” Grissom said.

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It’s expected to determine long range model forecasts too. The buoys are deep ocean buoys and they are tethered 16,000 feet to the sea floor. Only the upper layer of the ocean temperatures will be measured, down to about 1,600 feet. Grissom said the information they get will be invaluable as our climate changes.

The upgrade isn’t going to happen overnight, NOAA will be deploying five prototypes by the end of the year and have a total of 50 of them in service by 2027.

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