between theoretical concepts and the design 

 and interpretation of the field experiment. 



During the planning phase of the MODE-1 

 project the theoretical panel played a key role. 

 Important questions which were addressed 

 included the effect of bottom topography on 

 medium-scale eddies, optimum vertical and 

 horizontal spacing of current meters to ob- 

 tain "mappable" fields and float deployment 

 and redeployment strategies. Future work by 

 the theoretical panel includes determination 

 of Lagrangian and Eulerian signatures for var- 

 ious possible causal mechanisms, construction 

 of an ocean basin model and consideration of 

 the effects of microscale. Naturally, many fu- 

 ture aspects of the theoretical program will 

 evolve in accord with insights gained from the 

 field program. 



Program Management 



The various components of the MODE-1 are 

 substantial experiments in their own right. 

 Current U.S. participants in MODE represent 

 eleven universities and two research insti- 

 tutes. Scientists from the National Institute 

 of Oceanography in England have made a 

 major contribution to the MODE-1 field proj- 

 ect; other participating scientists are from the 

 University of Cambridge, the University of 

 Hamburg, the University of Goteborg and the 

 Soviet Institute of Oceanology. 



The MODE principal investigators form a 

 scientific council, and specific, long-term 

 problems are dealt with by special commit- 

 tees. For example, in addition to processing 

 and interpretation by individual scientists of 

 the data they gather, project-wide data anal- 

 ysis and interpretation is carried out by three 

 committees — theoretical, intercomparison and 

 synoptic. Day-to-day project management is 

 provided by an executive officer who acts in 

 concert with the two co-chairmen of the scien- 

 tific council. Intermediate-scale problems are 

 dealt with by an executive committee which 

 is composed of seven scientists and includes 

 the executive officer. Figure 10 illustrates the 

 committee structure of MODE. 



To provide for the demand of the MODE-1 

 field experiment for quick decisions and the 

 careful weighing of differing needs, a special 

 communications facility, the Hot Line Center, 

 was maintained at the Bermuda Biological Sta- 

 tion. The Hot Line Center provided daily radio 



contact with MODE ships and aircraft as well 

 as a special telephone circuit to data analysis 

 and scientific facilities in the U.S. In this man- 

 ner early identification of features was as- 

 sured, enabling field sampling programs to be 

 modified accordingly. 



PROGRAM: 



THE NORTH PACIFIC 

 EXPERIMENT 



Between the dimensional and temporal lim- 

 its of "weather," on the one hand, and of 

 "climate," on the other hand, are substantial 

 fluctuations of the ocean and atmosphere 

 which involve time periods ranging from 

 months to decades and which affect large por- 

 tions of the earth's surface. It is this interval — 

 intermediate between weather and climate — 

 to which the North Pacific Experiment 

 (NORPAX) addresses itself. 



For five years the Office of Naval Research 

 (ONR) supported a research program in the 

 North Pacific to identify the oceanic processes 

 relating to these anomalous "weather" condi- 

 tions. Large areas of anomalously hot or cold 

 sea surface temperatures (anomalies related 

 to 30-year monthly mean values] were identi- 

 fied in the North Pacific. It was postulated 

 that these sea surface temperature anomalies, 

 via ocean-atmosphere coupling, affect the cli- 

 mate from the Eastern Pacific eastward across 

 the entire North American continent (Figure 

 11a, lib). 



Indeed, a direct correlation appears to have 

 been established between (a) such sea surface 

 temperature anomalies and the correlate mi- 

 gration of an anomalously deep atmospheric 

 trough from 155" E in September 1972 to 

 90" W in May 1973, and (b) the heavy winter 

 and early spring rains in California and the 

 southwest, the fiood-producing spring rains 

 and tornadoes in the central U.S. and the New 

 England floods of June. Obviously, major at- 

 mospheric perturbations in an area as large as 

 the North Pacific will have impacts not only 

 in adjacent regions — Asia, the Arctic, North 

 America and the South Pacific — but much 

 more remotely as well. To the extent, for 

 example, that Pacific-born weather off the 

 New England coast affects sea surface tem- 



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