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THE GLOBAL ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH PROGRAM 159 



and oceanographic communities throughout the world, not the least in 

 the United States. This rapprochement not only fostered a wide range of 

 research in ocean physics relevant to atmospheric problems, but also 

 slowly worked a sociological evolution in the oceanographic commu- 

 nity. Oceanographers began to think in the larger context long familiar 

 to meterologists and developed an increased appetite for and compe- 

 tence in cooperative programs. For their part, meteorologists began to 

 acquire an understanding of the ocean's challenging complexity. This 

 joint understanding was an essential foundation for the development of 

 meaningful research on the long-term problems of climate, where ocean 

 and atmosphere are inextricably linked. GARP also demonstrated that 

 "Big Science" could not only be good science, but moreover could offer 

 exciting opportunities and rewards for individual scientists. GARP 

 made the organization of subsequent large-scale interdisciplinary pro- 

 grams in the environmental sciences infinitely easier. Thus, not only the 

 end results of international activities, but also their process benefit the 

 participating nations. 



The inertia of an international program, once established, tends to 

 lend a highly desirable stability to the contributing programs of in- 

 dividual nations. In the United States, for example, a network of in- 

 teragency planning offices and agency focal points, each equipped with 

 a budget line, gave an enviable stability to GARP-related research over 

 better than a decade. GARP served as a flywheel on the often erratic 

 engine of government support for atmospheric sciences. 



The international process also gives us a better understanding of the 

 real scientific capabilities, limitations, and attitudes of other countries' 

 scientific establishments. The value of this understanding is hard to 

 quantify, but in a world of competing nations, it must have some worth . 



Finally, GARP really did achieve its objective, the improvement of 

 weather forecasts. Operational predictions made by the world's weather 

 centers are now genuinely useful out to 5 or 6 days. We— the nations 

 of the globe — took on a job that could only be done in concert, and we 

 did it. 



PAST LESSONS AND FUTURE HOPES 



In summary, then, it appears that a number of useful lessons may be 

 drawn from the GARP experience. First of all, it demonstrated that 

 science in an international setting can do a number of unique and 

 valuable things not readily achievable through other mechanisms of the 

 human endeavor. It showed that the scientific goals and the political 



