Marine Science Affairs 



portray computer-generated information graphically are now operational. 

 Consideration is being given to storing all bathymetric and geomagnetic 

 data in digitized form and, as automated data processing systems are installed 

 on all Navy survey ships, data reduction to digitized form can keep pace 

 with data collection. Other Defense Department facilities are responsible 

 for gravity and geodetic data, and rapidly expanding automated data 

 processing capabilities will eliminate existing backlogs of unprocessed data 

 by FY 1971. The Navy's Fleet Numerical Weather Center at Monterey, 

 California, is the hub of the Naval Environmental Data Network and the 

 center for an environmental forecasting program which covers most of 

 the Northern Hemisphere. The broad range of forecasts provided by this 

 center is used by a wide variety of military and civilian organizations. For 

 rapid data exchange, a data link is being established between NODC and 

 Monterey. 



The Great Lakes Data Center, operating under the Corps of Engineers, has 

 a program directed toward processing, storage, retrieval, and dissemination 

 of: 



— hydraulic and hydrologic data (water level) ; 



— oceanographic data (physical, chemical, and biological) ; 



— hydrometeorological data (precipitation) ; and 



— hydrographic data (depth) . 

 Data provided by the Great Lakes Center assist in regulating the levels and 

 overflow of Lakes Superior and Ontario and the flow over Niagara Falls and 

 determining the division of water for hydroelectric power between the United 

 States and Canada. Such data are also used extensively in research on fish- 

 eries, pollution, shore processes, currents, and ice formation and movement. 

 During FY 1970 services of the Center, augmented by additional automatic 

 data processing equipment, will provide new monthly publications of water 

 temperature data. 



The ESS A National Weather Records Center is the major repository for 

 marine meteorological data, including sea surface temperature and ocean 

 wave data. The observations are forwarded from 2,100 merchant ships and a 

 much smaller number of fixed stations, such as ocean station vessels and light- 

 ships, in accordance with procedures adopted by the World Meteorological 

 Organization and provide a broad basis for climatological analysis. Satellite 

 photographs and nephanalyses also are included in the data file. Several new 

 publications are planned by the Center, including a Series of Atlases for U.S. 

 Coastal Waters out to 250 miles offshore in support of intensified activities 

 on our Continental Shelf; Climatological Summaries for U.S. Lightships to 

 assist vessels approaching lightships; Climatological Summaries for Ocean 

 Station Vessels; and a Historical Sea-Surface Temperature Project in support 

 of fisheries research and studies of air-sea interaction. Equipment acquired 

 in 1968 now permits experimental automation of most stages of data-han- 

 dling processes from acquisition of raw data aboard ship to final graphics. 



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