The Subtropical Atlantic Climate Studies (STACS) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a multi-investigator, multi-institutional program (see Table 1 for participants) directed at (1) increased understanding of the role of western boundary currents of the Atlantic Ocean in meridional oceanic heat flux, and (2) development of strategies to monitor important western boundary features. The initial emphasis of STACS was all the subtropics (Molinari, 1983: Molinari, 1986) where earlier studies suggested that oceanic heat flux in the Atlantic is a maximum (e.g., Bryan el al., 1975; Oort and Vonder Haar, 1976; Hastenrath, 1980). Other studies found that the Florida Current was a major component in the net oceanic heat flux at about the latitude of Miami (e.g., Bryden and Hall, 1980). Thus, a two-year intensive observing period was conducted between 1982 and 1984 to study the role of the Florida Current in both the circulation of the subtropics and oceanic heat flux, as well as to devise sampling strategies for long-term monitoring of this western boundary current.

Molinari, R.L. 1989. Subtropical Atlantic Climate Studies (STACS): An update. Oceanography 2(2):32–35, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.1989.08.

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