108 OCEANOGRAPHY 



The need for such a center has become acute. A great volume of physical, 

 chemical, and biological data is continually being collected in many areas by 

 different groups for different purposes. Much of these data remain unpub- 

 lished, stored in the files of both governmental and nongovernmental institu- 

 tions. More is required, however, than simply a depository. A service facility 

 is needed for central storage and readout. It is also necessary for the data 

 center to undertake some degree of evaluation and quality control of the ob- 

 servations, preliminary processing, and summarization in convenient form for 

 use by researchers, preparation of regular data summaries, catalogs, and atlases 

 for those kinds of information widely used. 



One small example is the use of sea-surface temperature information. Sur- 

 face temperature data is taken by merchant vessels, research vessels, shore 

 stations, and military craft. Several millions of such temi>erature observations 

 are in the files of the Hydrographic Office and of the Weather Bureau's center 

 at Asheville, N.C. In order to use these to study the variations in the tempera- 

 ture regime of the oceans, it is necessary first to do a careful job of editing the 

 data to eliminate the "bad" observations. Then the data must be summarized 

 and averaged by small interv^als of space and time for each year. One of my 

 colleagues is doing this, for the North Pacific Ocean. He has the original data 

 for this area for the last couple of decades on punchcards. For over 2 years 

 now. he (with several assistants), has been editing, summarizing, and charting 

 surface temperatures by 2° squares for each month of the year. It will prob- 

 ably be yet several years before all the data are thus summarized. It is ob- 

 viou.sly inefficient to have several different groups doing this sort of thing, each 

 for one piece of ocean. A central agency using the most modern data process- 

 ing and computing equipment could do it much faster and cheaper, and also keep 

 the processing up to date with the inflow of new data. 



We must recognize that the collection and accumulation of oceanographic data 

 will accelerate greatly. Increasing numbers of research and suiwey vessels 

 will collect ob-servations. Continuously recording instruments will turn out 

 veritable floods of information which can only be processed in any reasonable 

 time by modern data handling and computing equipment. 



The Committee on Oceanography, having considered these problems, recom- 

 mended in chapter 3 of its report "Ocean Resources" : 



"The most economical method for establishing the National Oceanographic 

 Record Center would be to add it to an existing expandable facility in a Federal 

 bureau concerned with technical and scientific matters, and with an interest in 

 sea studies. Such a group should have both a tradition for i^rforming public 

 service and the competence and experience to handle lai'ge quantities of tech- 

 nical data. 



"The U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey and the U.S. Weather Bureau, both of 

 which are in the Department of Commerce, most nearly meet these criteria. 

 The former has the more direct interest in the sea : the latter has the greater 

 facilities for mass processing of data. The I\S. Hydrographic Office also is 

 concerned with technical and scientific matters; and it has even more wide- 

 spread interest in oceanography, but it serves Navy needs primarily and civilian 

 needs secondarily. All three collect, preserve, and disseminate certain types of 

 oceanographic data. The panel considers that the National Oceanographic 

 Records Center's function would be primarily to serve the public and that it 

 should reside in a civilian agency in order to render this service effectively." 



Quite recently, since the publication of that chapter of our report, we have 

 been informed that a plan has been developed, under the ausi>ices of the Inter- 

 agency Committee on Oceanography, to set up an oceanographic data center at 

 Suitland, Md.. physically adjacent to the U.S. Hydrographic Office, but adminis- 

 tered cooperatively by the Navy, the Coast and Geodetic Surve.v, the Bureau of 

 Commercial Fisheries, the Atomic Energy Commission, and the National Science 

 Foundation. In our opinion this would be a satisfactory way of meeting the 

 requirements for a data center, providing that it is clearly stipulated that this 

 center serve civilian and military needs adequately and on an equal priority 

 basis. We recognize that certain classified military requirements are of very 

 high priority. These should be handled by the Hydrographic Office essentially 

 outside the N'ational Oceanographic Data Center. 



If the national data center were to be set up in the Coast and Geodetic Survey, 

 as proposed in H.R. 12018. the center would tend to serve civilian needs on at 

 least an equal-priority basis. However, the Hydrographic Office now has the 

 world's largest collection of oceanographic data and the personnel experienced 

 in the storage, processing, and interpretation of such data. If a new center is 



