Chapter IV 



MONITORING, PREDICTING, AND 

 MAPPING THE OCEANS 



Describing and predicting conditions in the marine environment are 

 prerequisites to its safe and rational use, whether as a hunting preserve, 

 laboratory, highway, or recreation area. Marine weather and climate, the 

 "weather" and "climate" within the sea, navigable waters and navigation 

 hazards, shore boundaries, the contours and content of the continental 

 rim — all of these must be known. 



As national objectives in the oceans crystallize into programs, the need 

 grows for descriptions of greater detail, for prediction of longer duration 

 and greater accuracy, and for innovative information management tech- 

 niques to handle vast accumulations of data. The trend in the Federal 

 Ocean Program is toward national and international systems that are in- 

 creasingly capable of monitoring and predicting natural events and toward 

 mapping and charting programs that are increasingly responsive to national 

 needs. Behind this trend are a new family of multiple-use platforms, ranging 

 from earth-orbiting satellites and their remote sensing capability to ocean 

 data buoys capable of monitoring environmental processes in virtually real 

 time. 



Oceanic Observation and Prediction 



Technological advances have significantly improved the abilities of marine 

 scientists to extend their knowledge of oceanic properties and processes. 

 But these advances in marine research have not been easily translated into 

 new environmental services. To close this gap between what is available 

 and what is needed, the Federal Ocean Program has grouped its marine 

 observ^ational and predictive efforts in MAREP (Marine Environmental 

 Prediction) , which identifies the systems approach to present and projected 

 services. Represented on a committee under a Federal Coordinator from 

 NOAA are the Departments of Commerce, Defense, the Interior, State, 

 and Transportation, the AEC, EPA, NASA, NSF, and Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion. The MAREP objective is to make what has been diverse, coherent, 



The hurricane-tracking capability of earth-orbiting satellites is pointed up by this 

 photograph from NASA's geostationary Applications Technology Satellite (ATS) 3, 

 which shows hurricane Edith (weakened over Yucatan), Fern (crossing the 

 Texas-Mexico coast), and Ginger (in the Atlantic east of Florida) in September 1971. 

 Photo gridding is by NOAA's National Environmental Satellite Service. 



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