Meteorological Data and Heat Fluxes Measured during the U.S. JGOFS Arabian Sea Process Study

Eleven cruises took place aboard the R/V Thomas G. Thompson for about sixteen months from October 1994 until January 1996. These cruises provided seasonal coverage of the annual monsoon and inter-monsoon cycles in the area southeast of Oman - from where the cruises were staged.

The monsoons of the Arabian Sea drive a uniquely intense carbon cycling system, and it is the goal of JGOFS to better understand the role of the oceans in global carbon cycling. Meteorological observations of the Arabian Sea were collected by a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution surface mooring deployed at 15.5N, 61.5E from October 1994 to October 1995. Parameters measured include air temperature, sea surface temperature, relative humidity, specific humidity, east component of wind velocity, north component of wind velocity, barometric pressure, incoming shortwave radiation, incoming longwave radiation, and precipitation rate.