information handling organizations, and the administrative and 

 support activities. 



"VVlien we refer to system, incidentally, we do not necessarily antici- 

 pate a centralized operation, but include the articulation of a number 

 of specialized data centers appropriately linked and meeting quality 

 standards. 



Present Status and Next Steps 



Some physical-chemical and other information is stored in data 

 banks at the multiagency funded and managed National Oceano- 

 graphic Data Center (NODC) in Washington, D.C., and various other 

 DOD and ESSA data centers. Much information is in the literature, 

 in the repositories of over 100 research or industrial institutions and 

 Federal agencies, and in the files of many individual scientists. 



The Marine Sciences Council has accordingly authorized its staff 

 to undertake a comprehensive study of the Nation's oceanographic 

 data requirements and management steps that could meet a wide vari- 

 ety of needs. This study is to be funded by various Federal agencies 

 who are members or observers of the Council. The effort will be 

 guided by a steering group whose members will be nominated by their 

 agency heads. The study will be conducted on contract and will initi- 

 ally endeavor to identify the various users of data— Federal, State, 

 academic, and industrial — and to catalog their requirements. These 

 users include: 



— the "nonapplied" scientist who is interested in the phenomenology 

 of the oceans for scientific objectives but whose knowledge and 

 perception are the basis for a rigorous miderstanding of the oceans 

 and atmosphere; 



— the naval planner concerned with antisubmarine warfare who 

 must understand undersea phenomena that aid concealment ; 



— the climatologist who must acquire and analyze large quantities 

 of often seemingly unrelated information in order to understand 

 local, regional, and world climate ; 



— the meteorologist, oceanographer, and seismologist who are con- 

 cerned with the influence of the oceans on the weather over ocean 

 and land areas and who must warn of hurricane, storm surge, and 

 of tsunami sea waves of destructive character ; 



— industrial managers undertaking expensive offshore mining or oil- 

 drilling operations who need information on the ocean bed and 

 water conditions above it ; 



— the fisherman, commercial or sport, who will be able to draw on 

 oceanic data and aircraft, or spacecraft-derived surveillance, to 

 predict location and density of fish stocks ; 



67 



