SAFARI 2025 buoy

The ONR SAFARI Departmental Research Initiative aims to improve our understanding of how air/sea interactions impact the timing, intensity, and impacts of atmospheric river events in the eastern Pacific Ocean. A joint Scripps Oceanographic and Woods Hole Oceanographic partnership has developed a capacity to observe surface fluxes and ocean boundary layer response through previous ONR support. The system combines an air/sea flux buoy (WHOI) with a Wirewalker ocean-wave-powered profiling vehicle (SIO). For SAFARI, in consultation with the SAFARI DRI science team, a mooring location in the central mid-latitude Pacific (33°25' / 158° W) was chosen to provide information for numerical models, and to investigate basic questions regarding the influence of air/sea fluxes on atmospheric processes in the critical "upstream" region.