The NTU buoy for typhoon observation part 2: Field tests

There is an urgent need among the scientific community for a better understanding of the air-sea interactions that occur during typhoons and improved accuracy in typhoon forecasting. To this end, the Institute of Oceanography at the National Taiwan University (IONTU) has developed a buoy that can measure meteorological and hydrographic conditions, and transmit the high-precision data in near real-time. The buoy captures various types of meteorological data, including air temperature, air pressure, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, and solar radiation. Additionally, the buoy measures key hydrographic data such as the temperature and salinity profiles of the upper 500-m water layer. Such prototype buoys were deployed in the western North Pacific, the world's most active region for typhoons, in the summers of 2015 and 2016. The buoys were moored at distances of approximately 375 km (station NTU1) and 175 km (station NTU2) from the southernmost tip of Taiwan. In 2015, NTU1 survived four typhoons (Linfa, Chanhom, Soudelor, and Goni) and successfully captured many crucial aspects of their behavior and evolution. Unfortunately, the prototype was damaged by two Category 4 super-typhoons, Soudelor and Goni. After the 2015 trial, the IONTU buoy team modified several parts that were destroyed in 2015 and added more instruments and devices to the NTU's prototype buoys, and the two modified buoys were used in 2016. These buoys survived five typhoons (Nepartak, Meranti, Malakas, Megi, and Aere) and successfully collected important data on all five of them. These trial results, as well as all observation data gathered from the two years, are presented in this paper.