(4] To explore the mechanisms of production, transformation, and 

 dissipation of eddy energy 



(5) To develop and test numerical models of oceanic mesoscale and 

 general circulations, including mesoscale eddies, for the purpose of 

 forecasting and assessing their interaction with the atmosphere. 



Definition of the linkage between the oceans and atmosphere must 

 be established before reliable long-range weather and climate 

 forecasting is possible. The close connection between abnormal sea- 

 surface temperatures in the North Pacific and changes in the 

 circulation of the atmosphere suggest that the sea serves as an 

 energy source for the atmosphere. This relationship between the air 

 and sea appears to affect the way the air moves, and thus provides 

 one possible explanation for unusual weather patterns over North 

 America. The joint NSF-ONR North Pacific Experiment (NORPAX) 

 is designed to study these phenomena. 



During 1974 NORPAX scientists conducted the POLE experiment 

 900 miles north of Hawaii. It was the first in a series of experiments 

 that will eventually culminate in a heat-budget study aimed at 

 finding out how sea-surface temperature anomalies come about. In 

 addition, a multilayer simulation model of the North Pacific Ocean 

 has been developed, which includes all the major parameters 

 (temperature, salinity, and velocity distribution). This flexible and 

 efficient model is now being run on computers by scientists of the 

 National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) using 

 oceanographic and atmospheric data to analyze the patterns and 

 effects of the North Pacific anomalies. Future work will include 

 continued statistical analysis of historical data, the continuation of 

 long-term monitoring programs, intensive process-oriented ex- 

 periments (direct measurements of latent heat flux and upper ocean 

 mixing), and continued refinement of analytical and numerical 

 models of ocean-atmosphere coupling. 



Scientists in NSF's Geochemical Ocean Sections Study 

 (GEOSECS) have successfully obtained measurements of ocean 

 constituents at selected depths along Arctic-Antarctic sections in 

 the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The measurement will provide, for 

 the first timr*, a systematic set of physical and chemical parameters 

 measured on the same water samples. These data are already 

 providing the basis for quantitative studies of the stirring and 

 mixing processes in the deep sea, the interchange of material 

 between deep and surface waters, and the exchange of water and 

 gases with the atmosphere. These data can also serve as a baseline 

 against which future addition of fission and waste products and 

 other pollutants to the sea can be measured. 



The world's climate and its fluctuations occupy a position of 



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