conditions, using NASA and Navy aircraft. Ground truth to verify and 

 interpret the radar data was provided by laser altimeters and by foreign 

 weather station ships. 



2. Ocean swell measurement techniques from space photography were de- 

 veloped by Navy. 



3. Detailed analyses of visible regions and high-resolution infrared imagery 

 from the Nimbus 11 satellite were completed, demonstrating the feasibility 

 of mapping the distribution of sea ice by these techniques. 



4. The Navy's tests of a ruby laser for sea-ice profiling resulted in remark- 

 able resolution accuracy of 6 inches. Matched with coincident photography 

 the laser tests demonstrated that ice roughness and surface reflectivity offered 

 promising indications for use in interpreting stages of ice development. 



5. The Bureau of Commercial Fisheries demonstrated the utility of low- 

 light-level TV to detect bioluminescence generated by both individual and 

 schooling fish. Fisheries experiments were conducted using photography, 

 infrared radiometers, and multispectral imagery to map sea surface tem- 

 peratures and areas of upwelling off the Columbia River. Spectrometer sig- 

 natures were established for several species of fish in the Gulf of Mexico. 



6. Multiband photography was flown over the submersible Ben Franklin to 

 gain information on the visibility of her hull at various depths and at various 

 parts of the spectrum. 



7. The Navy tested techniques for measuring volume reverberation (the 

 scattering and random echoes of acoustic pulses in the ocean) from aircraft, 

 using modified ASW sonobuoys and explosive sources of sound. Work is 

 underway to extend these techniques to the measurement of bottom loss (the 

 amount of acoustic energy lost or dissipated when an acoustic pulse is 

 bounced off the ocean bottom) . Both of these factors are of critical impor- 

 tance to the new, high-powered sonar systems, which are designed to project 

 sound either directly through the water mass, or reflect it off the bottom if 

 this is advantageous operationally against submerged submarine targets. 



8. Aircraft expendable bathythermographs were used routinely by the 

 Navy for synoptic and quasi-synoptic measurement of large-area ocean 

 temperature profiles. 



9. A wide-range imaging spectrophotometer and water color spectrometer 

 were flown over test sites, providing data on absorption spectra for polluted 

 waters, mineral and fish oil slicks, chlorophyll, and water mass types. 



10. An interrogating, recording, and locating system was used to demon- 

 strate continuous, reliable ocean data telemetry. Data acquired by sensors 

 on buoys and ships and the sea platform's position were telemetered on 

 inquiry to a Nimbus satellite which further relayed them to a land-based 

 processing computer. 



11. Two Navy magnetic survey aircraft collected almost 250,000 miles of 

 airborne magnetic data on worldwide flights. 



National Oceanographic Instrumentation Center 



Implementing a decision taken by the Marine Sciences Council the Na- 

 tional Oceanographic Instrumentation Center was fomially established on 

 February 13, 1969, with the mission: "To act as the National focal point 



126 



