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THE GLOBAL ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH PROGRAM 157 



"GARP," and delegated to the JOC virtually unlimited authority to 

 define its objectives and to design its execution. 



Time and again in GARP's long gestation period, the JOC was faced 

 with temptations to accept convenient shortcuts and compromises that 

 might have undermined the program's integrity. Each time, these temp- 

 tations were decisively rejected. The JOC decided, for example, that a 

 GARP Atlantic Tropical Experiment (GATE) program without a 

 satellite would not be meaningful, and by a miracle of leadership and im- 

 provisation, the United States came up with a satellite in the nick of 

 time. The JOC decided that a global experiment without atmospheric 

 soundings in the tropics would not be meaningful, and a patchwork 

 quilt of aircraft and ship programs was evolved to replace the neat and 

 glamorous technical solution of a carrier balloon system that had failed 

 to materialize. A global experiment with only four geostationary 

 satellites instead of five could have been organized with far less East- 

 West wrangling, but the JOC stuck to its guns and the gap left by delays 

 in a Soviet satellite was eventually filled by a U.S. contribution. GARP 

 demonstrated that an international scientific program can maintain the 

 integrity of its scientific goals over years and decades. 



THE U.S. ROLE 



As the capsule history above indicates, the U.S. role in the develop- 

 ment of GARP was crucial in almost every respect. The original impetus 

 to the program was provided by U.S. leadership from the very top. Our 

 steadfast political support set an example for other countries to keep the 

 program going both through the sponsoring international bodies and 

 through their own programs. Our physical resources in terms of money, 

 technical and logistic capabilities, and scientific talent played a vital 

 role. We contributed large sums to the international planning activities; 

 we provided unique observing systems such as satellites, aircraft, and 

 airborne electronics, and we seconded many scientists to international 

 planning activities and field programs. Most significantly, however, the 

 intellectual contributions of the U.S. community, which through most 

 of the planning period was clearly preeminent in the world, shaped the 

 program and lent it the scientific integrity and authority noted above. 

 The magnitude of the U.S. contribution is difficult to assess quan- 

 titatively, in part because of the intermingling of research and opera- 

 tional activities. Over the lifetime of the program, total expenditures by 

 all participating countries were probably on the order of $500 million, 

 with the U.S. providing about $100 million of that sum. 



