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PIRATA FR18 - 2008: cruise background

PIRATA network

Every year, the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement organises cruises to take scientists and maintain the eastern part or the Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Atlantic (PIRATA).   And every year oceanographers from research institutes (LEGOS, NOCS, ...), join the ship for the voyage in the Gulf of Guinea.

PIRATA (Pilot Research Moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic) is a multinational program between Brazil, France and United States of America, established to monitor the ocean-atmosphere system in the Tropical Atlantic in order to improve our knowledge and understanding of Ocean-Atmosphere variability in this region. The variability of the ocean-atmosphere system in the Tropical Atlantic, from the intra-seasonal to the multi-decadal scale, strongly influences the regional hydro-climates (ie variations in rainfall) and, consequently, the economies of the adjacent continental regions. PIRATA is motivated by fundamental scientific issues but also by the societal needs for improved prediction of the Tropical Atlantic climatic system and its impacts on surrounding countries.

PIRATA: Temperature, Salinity and density in 2006

Pilot Research Moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic (PIRATA) mooring showing temperature, salinity, density profiles and Mixed Layer Depth (MLD -white contour) in 2006. (Muhammed et al., 2008)
Click on image for larger figure with explanation

 

For example, variations in the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and the West African Monsoon affect rainfall and droughts in Africa and North-Eastern Brazil, and hurricane activity in the West Indies and the United States of America.

The Tropical Atlantic plays also a central role in the water masses interhemispheric exchanges for the thermohaline circulation.

More information about research in the Tropical Alantic can be found in PIRATA and TACE web pages.

Last update:
28 December 2008 		Contact:
o4s@soc.soton.ac.uk