The process studies are designed to study specific ways in which the atmosphere and/or ocean respond to external and internal forcing using instruments that record the temporal and spatial variability of physical properties such as temperature, velocity, and moisture or salinity. Such campaigns are typically a few weeks to a few months in duration due to their cost of operation and demand on researchers' time away from home and office. The goal is to advance understanding of high resolution processes typically not well-represented in numerical models but hypothesized to be important to understanding the regional and/or global climate system.
Pilot Upgrade of NOAA NDBC Coastal Weather Buoys for Improved Monitoring of Weather and Climate, May 2025 - August 2026, NOAA National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) mooring 44008 (40°N, 70°W), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Weather Program Office (WPO). Principal Investigator - Yolande Serra.
OTREC GPS-Met Network, July - October 2019, Costa Rica. U.S. National Science Foundation. Chief Scientist - Yolande Serra
North American Monsoon Transect 2013 Experiment, June - September 2013, Northwest Mexico. U.S. National Science Foundation. Chief Scientist - Yolande Serra
NOAA ship Ronald H. Brown, 28 April - 8 June 1999, Joint Air-Sea Monsoon Interaction Experiment (JASMINE), Singapore to Darwin leg. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Global Programs. Chief Scientist - Peter Webster.
NOAA ship Ronald H. Brown, 28 July - 6 September 1997, Tropical Eastern Pacific Process Study (TEPPS). National Aeronautics and Space Administration Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Global Programs. Chief Scientist - Sandra Yuter.
NOAA aircraft WP-3D, 5 March - 7 April 1993, Central Equatorial Pacific Experiment (CEPEX). U.S. National Science Foundation. Chief Scientist - Robert Grossman.
Observing systems differ from process studies in that they represent a set of observations deemed necessary for ongoing monitoring of a region or global climate system in the service of public good. Such observations are part of the global observing system that underpin regional and global weather and climate prediction, ecosystem management, and aviation and maritime safety, among other services.
SUN Fleet, an Uncrewed Surface Vehicle (USV) Network endorsed by the UNESCO International Oceanographic Commission and World Meteorological Organisation Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) in April 2025.
TPOS Saildrone Missions, 2020 - present. NOAA UxSOC/GOMO/NOPP/OMAO. Principal Investigator - Meghan Cronin. Co-Principal Investigators (over all years, underlined indicates Co-I for all years) - Dongxiao Zhang (UW CICOES/NOAA PMEL), Samantha Wills (UW JISAO/NOAA PMEL), Christian Meinig (NOAA PMEL), Adrienne Sutton (NOAA PMEL), Eugene Burger (NOAA PMEL), Yolande Serra (UW CICOES/NOAA PMEL), Avichal Mehra (NOAA NDBC), Karen Grissom (NOAA NDBC), Eric Lindstrom (Saildrone, Inc.), Réka Domokos (NOAA NMFS PIFSC), Jack Reeves Eyre (ERT/NOAA NCEP), Jieshun Zhu (NOAA NWS/NCEP), Ian Sears (NOAA NDBC), Vijay Tallapragada (NOAA NWS/NCEP/EMC), Elizabeth McGeorge (UW CICOES/NOAA PMEL), Santha Akella (NOAA NWS/NCEP/EMC), Stephanie Ray (NOAA NDBC), Dan Whitt (NASA), Bipendra Pakrash (Pacific Islands-GOOS Regional Alliance), Scott Stalin (NOAA PMEL)
TLALOCNet – A continuous GPS-MET array in Mexico for atmospheric, climatic, and seismotectonic research in the Americas, 2013-2017, Mexico. U.S. National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation Program. Principal Investigator - Miller. Co-Principal Investigators: Charles DeMets, Glen Mattioti, Yolande Serra, Enrique Cabral-Cano. [Now part of the Network of the Americas (NOTA).]