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An upcoming MEDEA investigation that will have direct impact on the use of 

 national security systems for monitoring oceanic pollution is the Arctic climatology 

 study, which will combine U.S. and Russian databases to provide an unparalleled global 

 view of the Arctic. Russian hydrographic and ice information will provide a much finer 

 view of Arctic processes than the U.S. currently has, and this will significandy improve 

 existing circulation models. In addition, this study will specifically investigate the use of 

 radionuclides as traces for oceanic circulation patterns, thus providing a necessary 

 validation of the models. 



In summary, MEDEA activities directly relate to the problem of ocean dumping 

 of radioactive and toxic wastes in three ways. First, MEDEA and the Intelligence 

 Community have demonstrated the capability of national security systems to detect and 

 monitor pollutant spills, to characterize the local terrain near the spill, and to use this 

 information to predict the impact of the spill outside of the immediate area. Second, a 

 number of MEDEA activities are extracting oceanic information from national security 

 systems and Navy databases that characterize the processes needed to model circulation 

 and transport of pollution. This environmental information can be used to improve 

 existing circulation models and thereby improve their prediction of toxic waste transport. 

 Third the working interaction between the scientific community and the National 

 Security Community has enabled a rapid response with more complete information to 

 environmentally related policy questions and, as demonstrated by the Komi oil spill 

 study, this may be a useful model for addressing future pollutant problems. 



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