Winds:

Included in your files are zonal and meridional components
of wind, wind speed, and wind direction.

Winds use the oceanographic convention, so that a wind with 
zonal and meridional components of 1.0 and 1.0, is blowing toward 
the Northeast. Wind components and wind speed have units of meters 
per second while direction has units of degrees, clockwise from
north. For example, a wind with a direction of 90 degrees
is westerly, i.e., directed to the east. Daily averaged wind 
speeds and directions are based on daily averaged wind velocity
components.

ATLAS buoys used in TAO and PIRATA measure winds at a height of 
4 m above mean sea level whereas TRITON buoys measure winds at 
3.5 m above mean sea level. TRITON buoys replaced ATLAS buoys 
in the Pacific west of 160E beginning in 1999. (Instrument 
height in the data files is shown as a negative depth).

ATLAS buoys measure wind direction relative to true north, 
while TRITON buoys measure it relative to magnetic north.
The TRITON project office will recompute winds using true
north in the future.

For detailed information about TAO and PIRATA sampling and sensors, 
see these two web pages:

  http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tao/proj_over/sensors.shtml

  http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tao/proj_over/sampling.html

For general information about the TAO Array, see

McPhaden, M.J., A.J. Busalacchi, R. Cheney, J.R. Donguy,
K.S. Gage, D. Halpern, M. Ji, P. Julian, G. Meyers,
G.T. Mitchum, P.P. Niiler, J. Picaut, R.W. Reynolds,
N. Smith, K. Takeuchi, 1998: The Tropical Ocean-Global
Atmosphere (TOGA) observing system:  A decade of
progress. J. Geophys. Res., 103, 14,169-14,240.
   http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/pubs/outstand/mcph1720/abstract.shtml

For general information about PIRATA, see

Servain, J., A.J. Busalacchi, M.J. McPhaden, A.D. Moura,
G. Reverdin, M. Vianna, and S.E. Zebiak, 1998: A Pilot
Research Moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic (PIRATA).
Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 79, 2019-2031.

For information about the TAO/TRITON collaboration see
   http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tao/proj_over/triton.html

In ascii format files, to the right of the data, you will 
find data quality codes which use the definitions below. 
In NetCDF format files, you will find a quality variable 
with the same shape as the data. Using these codes you can 
tune your analysis to trade-off between quality and 
temporal/spatial coverage. 

Quality Code Definitions:

0 = datum missing

1 = highest quality; Pre/post-deployment calibrations agree to within
sensor specifications.  In most cases only pre-deployment calibrations have
been applied

2 = default quality; Pre-deployment calibrations applied.  Default
value for sensors presently deployed and for sensors which were either not
recovered or not calibratable when recovered.

3 = adjusted data; Pre/post calibrations differ, or original data do
not agree with other data sources (e.g., other in situ data or climatology),
or original data are noisy.  Data have been adjusted to correct for error.

4 = lower quality; Pre/post calibrations differ, or data do not agree
with other data sources (e.g., other in situ data or climatology), or data
are noisy.  Data could not be confidently adjusted to correct for error.

5 = sensor or tube failed