Description
Summary:A network of automatic data buoys for monitoring synoptic-scale fields of pressure, temperature, and ice motion throughout the Arctic Basin was recommended by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 1974. Based on the Academy's recommendation, the Arctic Ocean Buoy Program was established by the Polar Science Center, University of Washington, in 1978 to support the Global Weather Experiment. Operations began in early 1979 and the program continued through 1990 with funding from various agencies. In 1991, the Arctic Ocean Buoy Program was superseded by the International Arctic Buoy Program (IABP), although the basic objective remains the same: to establish and maintain a network of drifting buoys in the Arctic Ocean to collect data needed for real-time operations and meteorological and oceanographic research. This report is one in a series of data reports that began in 1979. Data for this report were processed as outlined in the 1986 data report with the exception that the authors have reverted to 3-hourly interpolation of sea-level pressure and air temperature. The average daily temperature was calculated from these eight measurements. The tables give daily data for each buoy identified by its Argos number. The data are interpolated values for location and pressure at 1200 GMT. The value is not given if it is not reliably known. The temperature is averaged over the eight synoptic intervals to eliminate diurnal variation. An asterisk indicates that one or more of the temperatures during this day were not known. The plots show contours of surface pressure at 1200 GMT. The daily displacement of each buoy is indicated by a vector originating from the buoy's current position at the beginning of each day. Buoy positions and displacements were not plotted when the data did not permit good displacement estimates. Usually the pressure measurements were still reliable at these times and were used to construct the pressure field.