Surveys and Services 



37 



ress, and to progress in cooperative plans with 

 other nations. The present estimate is that the 

 ultimate share of the United States in the world 

 ocean survey will be approximately 30 percent (to 

 be prosecuted mainly by the Naval Oceanographic 

 Office and Coast and |Geodeticj Survey with assist- 

 ance from other agencies). 



The program planned here is expected to run 

 about $260 million over the decade. 



B. The National Oceanographic Data Center 



The need for a centralized repository for the 

 Nation's oceanographic data has been recognized 

 for many years. Action began about four years 

 ago to establish such a facility and the 86th Con- 

 gress originated, but failed to pass, a bill estab- 

 lishing a National Oceanographic Data Center. 

 At the.same time, the federal agencies through the 

 Interagency Committee on Oceanography rec- 

 ommended a jointly sponsored center to the Fed- 

 eral Council for Science and Technology and this 

 was approved in June of 1960. In November, the 

 NODC was established as an administrative com- 

 ponent of the Navy's Hydrographic (now Ocea- 

 nographic) Office, and began work under the pol- 

 icy guidance of an interagency Advisory Board 

 representing the six supporting agencies* and the 

 National Academy of Sciences. Steps are being 

 taken to assure close communication with ICO by 

 having the NODC Advisory Board Chairman re- 

 port the activities of the Center to the Chairman 

 of the ICO. 



NODC functions as a service activity for all 

 segments of the Nation's scientific community 

 with respect to marine environmental data and 

 information requirements. It also makes these 

 data accessible to the general public free of charge 

 or provides copies at cost. 



In performing this function NODC must, of 

 course, receive, compile, process, and preserve 

 CKeanographic data in a form permitting rapid 

 retrieval. It thus establishes procedures for in- 

 suring that the accuracy and general quality of the 

 data meet the criteria established by an Advisory 

 Board. Finally, it prepares data summaries, tab- 



*Navy, Coast and Geodetic Survey, Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, 

 the National Science Foundation, the Atomic Energy Commission, 

 and the Weather Bureau. 



ulations, and atlases showing annual, seasonal, 

 and monthly oceanographic conditions. The tech- 

 nical problems in carrying out these functions 

 adequately are formidable, and all the resources 

 of modern data handling technology as well as an 

 informed understanding of the oceanographic 

 community's needs are being brought to bear. 

 Housed in downtown Washington in the former 

 Naval Weapons Plant, the National Oceanographic 

 Data Center has a staff of approximately 80. Its 

 budget during the next ten years is expected to 

 total approximately $15 million. About half of this 

 is presently borne by the Navy, and most of the 

 remaining half is evenly divided among the Coast 

 and Geodetic Survey, the National Science Foun- 

 dation, and the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries. 

 The Weather Bureau, the Atomic Energy Com- 

 mission, the Coast Guard, the Geological Survey, 

 and the Department of Health, Education, and 

 Welfare each contribute about two percent. 



C. The Navy's Oceanographic Instrumentation 

 Center 



Although the Oceanographic Instrumentation 

 Center is a Navy activity, it cooperates with 

 other government agencies, private industry, and 

 the academic community to bring about improve- 

 ments and refinements in instrumentation, serv- 

 ing their needs to the extent possible. It is an 

 attempt on the part of the largest user of oceano- 

 graphic instruments to assure that the data it ob- 

 tains about the oceans is precise and accurate. 



After a slow evolution in the I950's, the Navy's 

 Oceanographic Office Instrumentation Division 

 blossomed into the present Center in November 

 1962. It has a staff of about 100 engineers, scien- 

 tists, technicians, and supporting personnel. It 

 contains engineering facilities for laboratory and 

 contractual development, test, and evaluation, and 

 the maintenance of instruments. It is developing 

 such new instrumentation as improved electronic 

 bathythermographs, shipboard wave recorders, 

 a shipboard survey system, submerged buoy 

 systems, and sound velocimeters. 



Its test equipment is extensive and modern, in- 

 cluding pressure test vessels, shock and vibration 

 test equipment, tensile test facilities, pressure 

 and temperature tanks, reversing thermometer 

 calibration equipment, a 60-foot clear-water in- 

 strument test tower, and a small craft for environ- 



