elements, such as, currents, waves, and temperatures, are 

 published for use by scientists, mariners, and the general public. 



Future efforts in general atlas production will be keyed in with 

 oceanographic data processing. The chief obstacle in the past has 

 been that the huge volume of observational data from which such at- 

 lases were prepared had to be collected and tabulated by laborious 

 and time-consuming hand methods. Reduction of the data to a 

 form whereby computations and tabulations can be made automat- 

 ically by high speed computers is underway at present. However, 

 a considerable backlog of unprocessed data still exists. Once 

 these data are processed onto punch cards or nnagnetic tape, a 

 much more sophisticated treatment can be applied than has been 

 used in the past. More accurate understanding of ranges of varia- 

 tion and probabilities of occurrence will be obtained from the 

 large volume of data available only when the invalid observations 

 can be eliminated and careful analysis performed. 



General atlases are planned for all the major ocean areas of 

 the earth. Each atlas will be composed of separate sections devo- 

 ted to waves, tennper atur e, currents, tides, bottom materials, sea 

 ice, flora and fauna, and special topics. Information will be pro- 

 vided for subsurface depths as well as for the surface. 



Despite the seemingly large volume of data on hand, a recent 

 review of the data available for the North Atlantic reveals that for 

 certain very large areas no data have ever been obtained. For 

 ocean areas other than the North Atlantic the shortage is even 

 greater. This points out a very definite need for a planned pro- 

 gram of basic data collection. Several-Tecent comprehensive 

 reports have stressed the need for a much better understanding of 

 the interaction of the submarine with its environment. The same 

 may be said for all other aspects of naval operations. The first 

 step in approaching this problem is to improve our knowledge of 

 the oceans. The large gaps in the data must be filled. 



The task of acquiring data in the deficient areas is only a 

 part of the problem. Detailed, long-term continuous records are 

 required in specific areas to permit a better understanding of the 

 dynamic and climatic changes that are always taking place in the 

 ocean. The total problem is therefore one of considerable magni- 

 tude and will call for a very careful assessment of our present 

 holdings and the development of a well-planned and detailed 



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