TAO Program Information

The Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) array is a network of buoys providing critical in situ meteorological and oceanographic observations in the Tropical Pacific Ocean. The purpose of the TAO array is to aid in the analysis and forecasting of Tropical Pacific variability related to the El Niño - Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which has wide-reaching effects on seasonal weather patterns across the globe.

The TAO array was initially developed in the 1980s by the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere (TOGA) program. TOGA was a 10-year study of interannual variability in the global oceans, and the establishment of the TAO array is considered its crowning achievement. The array was maintained by the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) until the mid-2000s, when it was transitioned to the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC).

NDBC has performed two major technological overhauls on the TAO array, with the most recent update being the TAO Recapitalization beginning in 2022. The TAO Recapitalization implements the recommendations of the international scientific community laid out in the Tropical Pacific Observing System (TPOS) 2020 Project Final Report. The TAO Recapitalization effort ensures that the observations provided by the TAO network continue to align with the evolving needs of the scientific community, advancing our understanding of ENSO variability and leading to improved seasonal weather predictions.