The WHOTS Project

In 2003, Robert Weller (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution [WHOI]), Albert Plueddemann (WHOI) and Roger Lukas (University of Hawaii [UH]) proposed to establish a long-term surface mooring at the Hawaii Ocean Time-series (HOT) Station ALOHA (22° 45'N, 158° W) to provide sustained, high-quality air-sea fluxes and the associated upper ocean response as a coordinated part of the HOT program, and as an element in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) array of global ocean reference stations

With support from the NOAA and the National Science Foundation (NSF), the WHOI HOT Site (WHOTS) surface mooring has been maintained at Station ALOHA since August 2004. The objective of this project is to provide long-term, high-quality air-sea fluxes as a coordinated part of the HOT program and contribute to the goals of observing heat, fresh water and chemical fluxes at a site representative of the oligotrophic North Pacific Ocean. The approach is to maintain a surface mooring outfitted for meteorological and oceanographic measurements at a site near Station ALOHA by successive mooring turnarounds. These observations will be used to investigate air sea interaction processes related to climate variability.