Atlas-B: The development and mooring of a Brazilian prototype of the Atlas buoy

The South Atlantic Convergence Zone (SACZ) is an important component of the ocean-atmosphere interactions over a large portion of South America. For properly monitoring the SACZ, the preliminary ideas for a southwest extension of the Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic (PIRATA) considered a set of four Atlas buoys; the last one intended to be moored near 28oS and 44oW. In its final configuration, however, the PIRATA Southwest Extension (PIRATA-SWE) deployed only three buoys in the tropical region, to the north of the SACZ. In March 2004, the occurrence of an unusually strong extra-tropical cyclone over the subtropical South Atlantic, which acquired characteristics of a Saffir-Simpson class-1 hurricane (the Catarina) around 28oS reinforced the necessity of having a monitoring platform anchored in that region. In 2009, efforts were started to assemble and deploy a Brazilian prototype of the TAO/PIRATA Atlas buoy the Atlas-B. Finally, in April 2013 the first Atlas-B, dubbed the Guariroba, was successfully moored at 28.5cS, 44oW. Similarly to the PIRATA program, this mooring site will be maintained initially as a pilot experiment, and eventually included in some long-term Brazilian monitoring program. The abstract goes here.