THE NAVY OCEAN SCIENCE PROGRAM 



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adapt computers for use aboard research ships. The volume of 

 data collected during most oceanographic cruises is so great that 

 high-speed data-handling and reduction techniques must be 

 applied. Present efforts are to record, reduce, and store gravity, 

 magnetic, sound-speed, and navigational data, echo soundings, 

 and other environmental sensor data in shipboard computers, 

 so that a continuous display of scientific results is available to 

 the scientists. This technique offers the investigator the op- 

 portunity to evaluate his results and to modify his cruise plans 

 as necessary. It also reduces or eliminates the need for data 

 reduction ashore. At best, a costly delay has been imposed 

 by post-cruise data reduction on making the information avail- 

 able for use. A substantial program of development lies ahead 

 for fuller and effective utilization of modern computers in 

 oceanography. 



A digital computer on a research ship. Such computers are in increasingly 

 common use on research ships for the recording and reduction of routine naviga- 

 tion, bathjmtietric, gravity, and magnetic data. Programs have been written so 

 that the same computer also can be used as a general-purpose computer by 

 scientists on board the ship. 



