Led by the TAO Project Office of the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), the full array of 70 moorings was completed in 1994.
A notable improvement to the Next Generation ATLAS moorings were the inductively coupled sensors for subsurface data which simplified fabrication, and therefore, eliminated the themistor cable and its labor-intensive assembly and deployment procedures.
ADCPs measure velocity profiles in the upper 200–300 m of the water column and data are available only after the subsurface moorings are recovered.
The TAO surface mooring consists of a fiberglass-over-foam toroid, an aluminum tower, and a stainless steel bridle with an overall height of 4.9 m when completely rigged.
[2] Near-real-time daily-averaged surface and subsurface data from ATLAS moorings are provided by the TAO project office.
The Next Generation ATLAS moorings measures various data including wind velocity components, air temperature, relative humidity, rain rate, shortwave and longwave radiation, barometric pressure, sea surface and subsurface temperature and conductivity, and current velocity.