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III. Improving Capabilities in Ocean 

 Science 



A. OVERVIEW 



Thus far in this report we have dealt primarily with assessing the 

 scientific utility of specific oceanographic and geophysical 

 databases. Here we will address the more general issue of 

 identifying opportunities for mumal benefit that might arise 

 from a closer technical relationship between academic ocean 

 science and the Navy's oceanographic establishment. 



With congressional support, and following recommendations 

 made by the ETF and by MEDEA, the intelligence community 

 has established a program to collect and archive classified 

 NTM imagery data collected from a set of locations that will be 

 regularly surveyed over periods ranging from years to decades. 

 The data are to be used in scientific studies of the global 

 environment, albeit requiring classified access. Some of these 

 measurement sites are ocean areas. One important result of the 

 present MEDEA study has been the realization that scientific 

 exploitation of these ocean fiducial data must involve analytical 

 use of correlative oceanographic data from the data archives of 

 NAVOCEANO. These "correlative data" are in many cases the 

 same as those discussed in Chapter II: ocean thermal and 

 salinity structure, high-resolution bathymetry, etc. The proper 

 scientific exploitation of the ocean fiducial data is, therefore, 

 bound up with access to NAVOCEANO" s databases and 

 modeling capabilities. 



Section B discusses the rationale for the NTM Global Fiducial 

 Data Program and the need for correlative oceanographic data 

 in its exploitation. Section C addresses the NAVOCEANO 

 data access capabilities, which we believe are important to 

 scientific research in and of themselves, as well as to the 

 exploitation of the ocean fiducial data. The final section. Bridge 

 Building, describes our recommendations for addressing all 

 these issues: exploitation of the NTM fiducial data, use of 

 NAVOCEANO' s oceanographic capabilities, and development 

 of closer ties between the Navy and the civilian ocean science 

 community. , ,. 



B. GLOBAL FIDUCIAL DATA 



1. SCIENTIFIC BASIS 



The desirability of establishing a long-term record of well- 

 sampled environmental databases on a fixed set of sites has 

 been identified by the scientific community as a critical resource 

 in identifying and analyzing global environmental change. The 

 capability to make systematic observations over many years 

 is essential in gaining an understanding of the fundamental 

 physical and biological processes. Long-term data will reveal 

 variabiUty , such as low-frequency cyclic phenomena and decadal 

 to centennial processes such as global warming, that cannot be 

 resolved in data sets gathered for shorter periods. Long-term 

 observational data also provide long lead-time indications that 

 the global environment trends may be moving in undesirable 

 directions and that actions may be needed to reverse these 

 trends. 



There are also discrete, or time-limited, events of both natural 

 {e.g., volcanic eruptions) and manmade origin {e.g. , the Kuwait 

 oil field fires, large oil spills, or dumping of radioactive materials 

 in the ocean) with longer term effects on the global system. 

 Studying the effects of such events may provide important 

 insights into how the global environmental system adjusts to 

 these discrete perturbations as well as to longer term changes. 



Another dimension of the fiducial data concept involves 

 exploiting the unique capabilities of the nation's classified 

 space-based reconnaissance system. Characteristics of these 

 sensors are complementary to those of civilian and commercial 

 sensor systems. Whereas civilian sensing systems have 

 emphasized relatively low-resolution imaging that covers very 

 large surface areas, classified systems provide high-resolution 

 coverage of relatively small areas. There are also significant 

 differences in their treatments of spectral resolution and 

 bandwidth. Thus classified systems will add a significant 

 dimension to the civilian environmental remote sensing 

 program. Detailed and periodic studies can, therefore, take 

 place at a variety of sites relatively difficult to observe by 

 conventional means. Intense, small-scale studies can also be 

 conducted in oceanic environments, another capability not 

 readily available with civilian sensing systems. 



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