Stratus Ocean Reference Station (20 degs S, 85 degs W) Mooring Recovery and Deployment Cruise, STRATUS 8, R/V Ronald H. Brown Cruise 07-09, October 9, 2007-November 6, 2007

Prepared in collaboration with NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL). Prepared in cooperation with Instituto del Mar del Peru (IMARPE), Callao, Peru, and other contributors. The original document contains color images. All DTIC reproductions will be in black and white.

The Ocean Reference Station at 20 degs S, 85 degs 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 cruises between October and December. During the October 2007 cruise on the NOAA ship Ronald H. Brown to the ORS Stratus site, the primary activities were recovery of the Stratus 7 WHOI surface mooring that had been deployed in October 2006, deployment of a new (Stratus 8) WHOI surface mooring at that site; in-situ calibration of the buoy meteorological sensors by comparison with instrumentation put on board the ship by staff of the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL); and observations of the stratus clouds and lower atmosphere by NOAA ESRL. Meteorological sensors on a buoy for the Pacific tsunami warning system were also serviced, in collaboration with the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service of the Chilean Navy (SHOA). The DART (Deep-Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami) carries IMET sensors and subsurface oceanographic instruments. A new DART II buoy was deployed north of the STRATUS buoy, by personnel from the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) Argo floats and drifters were launched, and CTD casts carried out during the cruise.