understanding of the physical processes occurring in the earth's crust. For 

 example, core analyses have helped to confirm the new theory of sea-floor 

 spreading, which explains the horizontal movement of continents away from 

 midocean spreading centers, and have indicated that some of the marine 

 basins, such as the Gulf of Mexico and the Mediterranean Sea, have the 

 potential of producing oil from rock located below water thousands of feet 

 in depth. 



Noteworthy in the conduct of this Project has been the international 

 participation. Foreign contributions have included shore laboratory analyses 

 of cores, site surveys by oceanographic ships, and some logistic supp)ort; 56 

 foreign scientists have participated in scientific cruises aboard Glomar 

 Challenger through January 1972. 



Drilling and coring operations are conducted aboard the Glomar 

 Challenger, owned by Global Marine, Inc., under contract to Scripps Institu- 

 tion of Oceanography. Scientific guidance to Scripps is provided through the 

 Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling (JOIDES), a 

 consortium of five academic groups. 



Oceanography From Space 



The success of earth-orbiting meteorological satellites has led to a growing 

 eflFort to apply space technology and remote-sensing techniques to monitoring 

 the marine environment. Many Federal agencies — NASA, the Departments 

 of Commerce and the Interior, Navy, the Corps of Engineers, and EPA — 

 are working closely to identify and conduct research and development toward 

 the operational use of airborne and satellite^borne remote-sensing techniques 

 to monitor oceanic environmental conditions in coastal regions and in the 

 open ocean. As noted in chapter IV, some "wet" products — for example, sea- 

 surface temperature maps from NOAA satellites — have begun to enter 

 operational service. 



During March 1971, a NASA aircraft obtained passive microwave and 

 infrared data as it overflew the arctic icepack ofT the north coast of Alaska. 

 Flights were timed to coincide with the presence of on-the-ice scientists con- 

 ducting research related to AIDJEX, who could provide "ground truth" 

 information required for the interpretation of the remote-sensor data. Passive 

 microwave techniques were found to be a powerful all-weather tool for 

 investigating the distribution of old and new sea ice and water ponds on the 

 ice, and for detecting the ice- water boundaries. Also in 1971, color photog- 

 raphy from aircraft and spacecraft was used to locate upwelling regions 

 and color fronts ; to trace sediments, river effluents, and pollution ; to study 

 coastal circulation and biological coloration; to identify water masses; and 

 to chart underwater features in coastal areas. Spectroradiometer data from 

 airborne instruments were successfully used to identify sewage, chlorophyll 

 concentration, red tides, and certain pollutants. Automated processing tech- 

 niques have been developed for objective color mapping, using spectrometer 

 data. 



The Manned Spacecraft Center at Houston, Tex., is providing infrared- 

 sensing data from aircraft for use in an interagency assessment of the thermal 

 effects of water discharged from a Trinity Bay powerplant. At the Mississippi 



84 



