The Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE) was held in the west Pacific between 1 November 1992 and 28 February 1993. A detailed description of TOGA COARE operations is given in the TOGA COARE Operations Plan, working version, Sept 1992, TCIPO. The overall goal of TOGA COARE is to improve the understanding of the role of the western Pacific ocean warm water pool in the mean and transient state of the tropical ocean/global atmosphere system. A wide array of atmospheric and oceanic instrumentation was deployed in the COARE region during the experiment.