“Bai-Long”: A TAO-hybrid on RAMA

RDSEA International, Inc. along with Down East Instrumentation, LLC partnered to design, build, deliver, commission and deploy three “air-sea interaction” buoy systems to China´s State Oceanic Administration (SOA), First Institute of Oceanography (FIO), Qingdao. These buoy systems were modeled after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration´s (NOAA) real-time buoy program in the Pacific Ocean: The Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) project. Three systems have been deployed with data collected from February, 2010 until the latest turn-around cycle in February of 2011. Each buoy system consists of state-of-the-art, “off-the-shelf” sensors that transmit subsurface oceanographic data (currents, temperature, conductivity and pressure) along with full meteorology at the sea-surface via the Iridium Satellite Constellation.