Chapter V 

 SURVEYS AND SERVICES 



Some programs and activities in oceanography 

 are undertaken to meet needs felt more or less 

 strongly by each group within the oceanographic 

 community but which are beyond the capacity of 

 each to meet separately or of any to provide for 

 all. Among these are broad area surveys, the main- 

 tenance of a complete library of oceanographic 

 data, the testing and calibration of a variety of in- 

 struments, including novel ones, and forecasting 

 oceanic conditions of both research and opera- 

 tional interest. 



The first two of these are present realities as are 

 ice and wave forecasting. The Ocean Survey Pro- 

 gram, described in ICO Pamphlet No. 7, ultimately 

 may be a part of an international effort as des- 

 cribed in the next chapter. It has already begun in 

 a small way with the closely controlled underway 

 lines and the network of oceanographic stations 

 conducted in the North Pacific by the Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey's PIONEER in 1961. 



The second service type activity is the National 

 Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) which was 

 established two years ago to assemble, process, 

 archive, and disseminate to interested users all 

 oceanographic data collected anywhere. Both 

 these programs were endorsed and implemented 

 through the Interagency Committee on Oceanog- 

 raphy. 



The Navy has just established its own Oceano- 

 graphic Instrumentation Center and steps are 

 being taken to make this available to users on a 

 national basis. The Navy's ASWEPS (Anti-Subma- 

 rine Warfare Environmental Prediction System) is 

 expected to become operational around 1965. It 

 may also provide some nonmilitary applications. 



A. The Ocean Survey Plan 



Both the scientific community, through the 

 National Academy of Sciences Committee on 

 Oceanography, and the various federal agencies 

 have expressed the need for systematic mapping 

 of the major properties of the oceans, the basins 

 which contain them, the sediments which lie un- 

 der them, the forces such as gravity and magnet- 

 ism which permeate them, and the life which 

 they contain. Such mapping can, of course, serve 



a variety of goals, providing tools for use in mili- 

 tary and economic welfare, as well as in scientific 

 oceanography. The measurements of interest to 

 each federal agency, the areas for early investiga- 

 tion (limited for some time by the availability of 

 Loran C precision navigational aids), and the 1964 

 ship assignments are presented in ICO Pamphlet 

 No. 12, May 1963. Detailed discussion is presented 

 in the ICO "Ocean Survey Plan," ICO Pamphlet 

 No. 7, May 1963. 



The ship requirements for an ocean survey 

 program cannot be exactly determined, since the 

 desired rate of progress cannot be established ex- 

 cept on subjective and intuitive grounds. Further- 

 more, the actual rate of progress which various 

 survey ships will demonstrate, once assigned, 

 cannot be precisely estimated. Presumably much 

 can be done to make present operations more ef- 

 ficient if the ship is designed and equipped for 

 participation in a coordinated program than would 

 be the case if its survey work were done in isola- 

 tion. Finally, the value of information collected 

 from survey lines taken at close intervals, say ten 

 miles apart, as compared to that which would re- 

 sult from lines 20 or even more miles apart must 

 be weighed against the differences in cost or time 

 associated with each. It is possible that buoy devel- 

 opments may proceed rapidly enough to replace 

 some ship survey effort late in the time period. The 

 economic and effectiveness considerations in- 

 volved here have not yet been analyzed. 



Both the need and the magnitude of the job will 

 never be greater than at present, however, and it 

 is the present intention to proceed with an orderly 

 survey program as rapidly as funds and personnel 

 will allow. The Coast and Geodetic Survey, acting 

 as agent for the ICO, has awarded a contract for 

 a major planning study of optimal survey systems 

 and their deployment. As estimated now but sub- 

 ject to reconfirmation as plans mature, the next 

 decade should see 24 new survey ships— 16 built 

 by the Navy to serve both in the ocean survey pro- 

 gram (5) and for special military surveys (II) and 

 eight by the Coast and Geodetic Survey (primarily 

 for the ocean survey program). These plans will be 

 responsive to new developments in instruments, 

 particularly in buoys which may multiply the unit 

 effectiveness and permit much more rapid prog- 



36 



