Weather buoy

During the 1980s and 1990s, a network of buoys in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean helped study the El Niño-Southern Oscillation.

[2] During World War II The German Navy deployed weather buoys (Wetterfunkgerät See — WFS) at fifteen fixed positions in the North Atlantic and Barents Sea.

When the batteries (high voltage dry-cells for the valves, and nickel-iron for other power and to raise and lower the aerial mast) were exhausted, after about eight to ten weeks, the unit self-destructed.

The United States Navy tested marine automatic weather stations for hurricane conditions between 1956 and 1958, though radio transmission range and battery life was limited.

[9] Between 1985 and 1994, an extensive array of moored and drifting buoys was deployed across the equatorial Pacific Ocean to monitor and help predict the El Niño phenomenon.

[14] Raw data is processed and can be logged on board the buoy and then transmitted via radio, cellular, or satellite communications to meteorological centers for use in weather forecasting and climate study.

The expected service life of the 3-metre (10 ft) platform is in excess of 20 years and properly maintained, these buoys have not been retired due to corrosion.

The NOMAD is a unique moored aluminum environmental monitoring buoy designed for deployments in extreme conditions near the coast and across the Great Lakes.

[16] NOMADs moored off the Atlantic Canadian coast commonly experience winter storms with maximum wave heights approaching 20 metres (66 ft) into the Gulf of Maine.

They have a thermistor (metallic thermometer) on its base, and an underwater drogue, or sea anchor, located 15 metres (49 ft) below the ocean surface connected with the buoy by a long, thin tether.

[24] Sea surface temperature measured in the intake port of large ships have a warm bias of around 0.6 °C (1 °F) due to the heat of the engine room.