Weather buoys are instruments which collect
weather and
ocean data within the world's oceans, as well as aid during emergency response to
chemical spills,
legal proceedings, and
engineering design. Moored
buoys have been in use since 1951, while drifting buoys have been used since 1979. Moored buoys are connected with the ocean bottom using either
chains,
nylon, or buoyant
polypropylene. With the decline of the
weather ship, they have taken a more primary role in measuring conditions over the open seas since the 1970s. During the 1980s and 1990s, a network of buoys in the central and eastern tropical Pacific ocean helped study the
El Niño-Southern Oscillation. Moored weather buoys range from to in diameter, while drifting buoys are smaller, with diameters of to . Drifting buoys are the dominant form of weather buoy in sheer number, with 1250 located worldwide.
Wind data from buoys has smaller error than that from ships. There are differences in the values of
sea surface temperature measurements between the two platforms as well, relating to the depth of the measurement and whether or not the water is heated by the ship which measures the quantity.