environmental information services supporting government, public, 

 academic, and industrial users. NOAA's Environmental Data 

 Service, as a true family of data and information centers, is making 

 considerable progress towards its interdisciplinary goal of "one- 

 stop service" to its user communities. EDS is comprised of the 

 National Oceanographic Data Center, the National Climatic Center 

 (marine climatology), the National Geophysical and Solar- 

 Terrestrial Data Center (marine geology and geophysics, including 

 seismology, gravimetry, and geomagnetism), the Environmental 

 Science Information Center, and the Center for Experiment Design 

 and Data Analysis. Six discipline-oriented World Data Centers 

 (dating from IGY) are collocated with EDS data centers. 



OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTRUMENTATION 



The National Oceanographic Instrumentation Center (NOIC) 

 provides a federal service for calibrating and testing oceanographic 

 instrumentation for government, academic, and industrial interests. 

 NOIC maintains technical capability and facilities to simulate ocean 

 environmental conditions. It establishes reference standards, 

 develops calibration methodology, and tests and evaluates 

 instrumentation for accuracy and reliability. 



The National Ocean Survey has the responsibility for developing 

 and demonstrating the capability to deploy data buoy systems for 

 oceanographic and atmospheric observations in order to support 

 marine industrial development, commerce, and recreation. 



MARAD's research and development program is divided into three 

 broad areas: 



ADVANCED SHIP DEVELOPMENT 



The principal objectives of the advanced ship development 

 program are: first, to reduce cost and increase productivity of 

 building and operating U.S. flag ships, through improved ship 

 designs, shipbuilding regulations, and new shipbuilding techniques, 

 including automation of design, of construction, and of management 

 and control of production; and second, to improve shipping systems 

 to be built or converted in the next two decades. The program 

 includes for example, development of first-generation Liquefied 

 Natural Gas (LNG) ships and modernization of first-generation 

 container ships in the '70's and of new shipping systems for the 80's, 

 such as advanced LNG ships or a new class of vessels intermediate 

 between bulk and container ships. These would carry cargoes of a 

 semi-manufactured nature such as finished steel or newsprint, not 

 suitable for either container ships or bulk carriers. 



ADVANCED SHIP AND PORT OPERATIONS 



The objectives of this effort, which includes deepwater terminal 

 systems, are to maximize cargo throughput at least economic cost 



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