Stratus Ocean Reference Station (20˚S, 85˚W) : mooring recovery and deployment cruise, R/V Ronald H. Brown Cruise 06-07, October 9–October 27, 2006

Funding was provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrationunder Grant No. NA17RJ1223.

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, of 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 andAtmospheric Administrations (NOAA) Climate Observation Program. It is recovered and redeployed annually, with cruises that havecome between October and December.During the October 2006 cruise of NOAA's R/V Ronald H. Brown to the ORS Stratus site, the primary activities where recovery of theStratus 6 WHOI surface mooring that had been deployed in October 2005, deployment of a new (Stratus 7) WHOI surface mooring at thatsite, in-situ calibration of the buoy meteorological sensors by comparison with instrumentation pub on board by staff of the NOAA EarthSystem Research Laboratory (ESRL, formerly ETL), and observations of the stratus clouds and lower atmosphere by NOAA ESRL. Abuoy for the Pacific tsunami warning system was also serviced in collaboration with the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service of theChilean Navy (SHOA). The old DART (Deep-Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami) buoy was recovered and a new one deployedwhich carried IMET sensors and subsurface oceanographic instruments. Argo floats and drifters were also launched and CTD castscarried out during the cruise. The ORS Stratus buoys are equipped with two Improved Meteorological (IMET) systems, which providesurface wind speed and direction, air temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, incoming shortwave radiation, incominglongwave radiation, precipitation rate, and sea surface temperature. The IMET data are made available in near real time using satellitetelemetry. The mooring line carries instruments to measure ocean salinity, temperature, and currents. The ESRL instrumentation usedduring the 2006 cruise included cloud radar, radiosonde balloons, and sensors for mean and turbulent surface meteorology. Stratus 7 alsoreceived a new addition to its set of sensors: a partial CO2 detector from the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL). Aerosolmeasurements were also carried out onboard RHB by personnel of the University of Hawaii. Finally, the cruise hosted a teacherparticipating in NOAA's Teacher at Sea Program.