19Jf 



for the National Weather Satellite Program. 

 Similarly, the agency responsible for 

 NEMPS should fund and manage civil oper- 

 ational satellite systems for oceanographic 

 monitoring. 



This review has identified only a fraction 

 of the useful improvements in present ob- 

 servational systems which can be achieved 

 through an expanded and sustained develop- 

 ment effort. Other opportunities are pres- 

 ent in the communications and processing 

 segments of the system. These opportunities 

 need to be pursued fully before making com- 

 mitments to develop major new systems of 

 less established reliability. 



The Commission recommends early im- 

 plementation of plans to place oceano- 

 graphic sensors on board operational 

 satellites and continued rapid develop- 

 ment of advanced sensors and techniques 

 for the satellite interrogation and location 

 of remote platforms, and transmission of 

 data from them. 



The techniques of systems analysis must 

 be widely applied to the examination of alter- 

 natives in expanding the Nation's environ- 

 mental monitoring and prediction programs. 

 These techniques are particularly relevant to 

 this area of marine science, because the costs 

 of installing and operating a global system 

 are large. Analyses should proceed with ad- 

 vances in technology to provide a suitable 

 decision-making framework when advanced 

 major elements of the system are ready for 

 deployment. 



The Commission recommends that the 

 National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

 Agency (ESSA) undertake extensive 

 analyses of alternative system designs of 

 NEMPS and the resulting benefits of im- 



proved predictions. Such analyses are re- 

 quired before decisions are made regard- 

 ing operational deployment of major new 

 system components. 



Research 



The Commission finds that the Nation is 

 at an early stage in the development of a 

 true scientific capability for predicting the 

 state of the oceans. It is important that a 

 number of limitations stemming from our 

 lack of basic understanding of certain phys- 

 ical processes be removed by a well-formu- 

 lated progi'am of basic research into key 

 problems in physical oceanography. Earlier 

 reviews by the National Academy of Sciences 

 Committee on Oceanography and the Presi- 

 dent's Science Advisoi-y Committee have in- 

 dicated similar needs. 



Dynamics of Ocean Currents 



Ocean currents may be compared superfi- 

 cially to the winds of the atmosphere but, 

 except for the trade winds, they are signifi- 

 cantly different in their persistence and be- 

 havior. In the temperate and polar regions 

 of the earth, storms tend to drift, from west 

 to east around the earth, bringing with them 

 weather patterns that commonly persist only 

 for a few days. Ocean current systems, at least 

 on the largest scale, persist for much longer 

 periods in the same geographical areas. The 

 meridional transfer of heat by these persist- 

 ent ocean currents has far-reaching eflFects 

 on climate, and fluctuations in the transport, 

 of these current systems probably are one of 

 the causes of major shifts in the world's 

 weather. 



Oceanographic cruises have been the tradi- 

 tional means by which the marine scientist 

 has sought to obser\e physical oceanographic 

 phenomena, but the methodology and instiii- 

 mentation used are inadequate to define 

 small-scale motions. 



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