PSD's Weather and Climate Physics Branch developed a Flux Standard to aid in investigating various issues in air-sea/ice interaction associated with the transfer of momentum, heat, moisture, trace gases, and particles at the wavy interface of the ocean. Goals include analysis and forecasts of weather, climate, and environmental conditions over the oceans and in coastal zones. The Flux Standard has been deployed on a wide variety of research vessels (NOAA, UNOLS, Navy, and Coast Guard). Normally a trained technician travels with the Flux standard to work with the R/V's technician (over the course of several weeks at sea) to identify discrepancies between the roving standard and the R/V SAMOS measurements. This Flux Standard is available for deployment on most SAMOS participating R/Vs upon request through NOAA/PSD3 (chris.fairall@noaa.gov).

Cruise reports are written following deployment of the Flux Standard or whenever an R/V is part of a WHOI/UOP buoy operation. These reports contain detailed comparisons of the R/V's and or Flux Standard and IMET measurements. An example of one such report where all three data sets were collected can be found in the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Hawaii Ocean Time-series (WHOT_2011) report. The reports are classified by cruise name and year. More details on the cruises can be found in the NOAA PSD cruise archive at http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/psd3/cruises/.