PIRATA was designed to study ocean-atmosphere interactions in the tropical Atlantic that affect regional weather and climate variability on seasonal, interannual and longer time scales. Ocean-atmosphere interactions in this region influence the development of droughts, floods, severe tropical storms and hurricanes, with impacts felt by millions of people in the Americas and Africa. PIRATA was first established in the mid-1990s and has undergone expansions and enhancements since 2005 to improve its utility for ocean and climate research and forecasting. To reflect these improvements in design, the original PIRATA acronym was changed in 2008 from “Pilot Research Moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic” to “Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic”. PIRATA is supported by France ((IRD, Meteo-France, CNRS and IFREMER), Brazil (INPE and DHN) and the USA (NOAA).
