and research ships were equipped with expendable bathythermographs in 

 the Navy's Ships of Opportunity Program as of January 1, 1972, with more 

 being outfitted during Calendar Year 1972. 



Prediction of the properties and dynamics of major eddies in the western 

 North Atlantic is now considered feasible. Surveillance and tracking of 

 both warm and cold eddies as a routine operational procedure for periods 

 up to 6 months are leading to a much improved understanding of these 

 phenomena. Such forecasts will have many significant applications, includ- 

 ing those to fisheries because much of the contained sea life restricts its 

 movements to the eddy cell. 



An Evolving Global System 



Among the important elements of the Federal Ocean Program's obsen^a- 

 tional activities are those looking to a global environmental monitoring 

 system. To this end, the Federal Government has mounted an intensive 

 technological effort aimed at providing the essential ocean-stationed sensors 

 and platforms and ocean-monitoring instruments for satellites. 



The Integrated Global Ocean Station System (IGOSS) is a major marine 

 monitoring and prediction program initiated by the Intergovernmental 

 Oceanographic Commission (IOC) with the collaboration of the World 

 Meteorological Organization (WMO). The purpose of IGOSS is to bring 

 together a number of national systems to fonn, ultimately, a dynamic world- 

 wide system for observing and measuring the marine environment. The 

 initial pilot program for collection, exchange, and evaluation of bathythermo- 

 graph data began early in 1972, using high-speed telecommunications 

 systems set up under United Nations agreements, principally the Global 

 Telecommunications System of the WMO World Weather Watch. The na- 

 tional data buoy system, and its related satellite relay systems, will be a 

 major contributor to IGOSS. 



Mapping and Charting the Oceans 



The traditional cartographic description of the marine environment has 

 been the navigation chart, which continues to represent a large portion of 

 Federal mapping and charting activity. But emphasis has expanded here 

 as well as in other categories of activity, and Federal agencies have turned 

 to the task of providing bathymetric and geophysical depictions of continen- 

 tal and shelf-lands, large-scale coastal zone maps, and seaward extension of 

 geodetic control. In particular, the Federal Ocean Program is now com- 

 mitted to reconnaissance map the bathymetry, geophysical character, and 

 resources of our Continental Shelf. There is also emphasis on applying new 

 technologies to improved and automated hydrographic and cartographic 

 operations. 



Nautical Charts 



The Departments of Commerce and Defense are the Nation's principal 

 chartmakers: NOAA producing nautical charts of the United States and 

 its possessions primarily for marine transportation, recreational boating, and 



55 



