Ocean Scout for Typhoon: An NTU real-time air/sea observation buoy successfully observed Typhoons Linfa and Chanhom

On 9 June 2015, a newly developed Institute of Oceanography air / sea-observing buoy system, carried by NTU R/V Ocean Researcher I, was moored at a "hot" spot for typhoon activity in the west North Pacific, a location that measures 5500 m in depth and that is 400 km southeast of southern Taiwan (see a video of the deployment at http://po.oc.ntu.edu.tw/buoy/video.php). Right after the deployment, the buoy successfully sent its first set of air/sea data back to NTU. “To the best of our knowledge,” the Director of the Institute of Oceanography, Ching-Ling Wei (魏慶琳), said, “this is the first data-gathering buoy in the Asian seas that can observe and transmit the temperature and salinity of the ocean’s upper 500 m, as well as the air temperature, air pressure, wind, and moisture, at continuous intervals of 30 minutes.”

After the first observation and transmission, the buoy survived two typhoons in early July (Linfa and Chanhom) and successfully captured the typhoons’ data and the ocean's responses to the two typhoons. This carefully gathered, real-time data was provided in a timely manner to the Central Weather Bureau for potential applications. The figures corresponding to the data have been plotted and are open to public through the following link: http://po.oc.ntu.edu.tw/buoy/.