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data collection, data, relay, and weather prediction (as a service to 

 submarine and surface ships) . 



In the conventional ocea.nographic program we believe use of buoys, 

 both tethered and free floating, by other agencies will certainly increase 

 as a means to fill the expanding need for three-dimensional data. The 

 development and application of new concepts such as deep-sea, sub- 

 mersibles and man-in-the-sea will also play an important role in the 

 data-collection process. An example of the potential value of space- 

 craft assistance as data collectors or data relays in support of such 

 conventional research tools took place in the late summer of 1963. At 

 that time, oceanographic data from the research ship Geronimo. which 

 was near Nigeria, was relayed via the NASA communications satellite, 

 Syncom II, to a computing center in Washington, D.C. Although this 

 exercise had been intended as a demonstration, analysis of the data in 

 Washington indicated that the shipboard measurements were grossly 

 in error and a message to that effect was relayed almost immediately 

 back to the Geronimo via Syncom II. Thus, the oceanographers were 

 able to detect and repair an equipment defect and resurvey the area 

 where the data were faulty before they had steamed away to their 

 next research site. 



A more recent example of data relay or collection by satellite is our 

 use of the Applications Technology Satellite: ATS-I, which is in 

 geostationary orbit over the Pacific Ocean. Using this satellite, rain- 

 fall and river height data are obtained experimentally from automated 

 platforms and are twice daily relayed to the Weather Bureau's Office 

 of Hydrology. This technique can be easily extended to be of assist- 

 ance to the oceanographic community on a continuing basis. 



NASA's role in bringing this technology to bear on measurements 

 and data collection of terrestrial phenomena has not been extensively 

 publicized, but is an aspect of our program wMch can have great 

 impact on our Nation's expanding programs of oceanography. Of par- 

 ticular interest to marine scientists, such as buoy developers and users, 

 is the interrogation, recording, and location system for terrestrial data 

 collection. This system, IRLS for short, is being developed at NASA's 

 Goddard Space Flight Center to demonstrate the feasibility of using 

 a satellite to locate and determine the position of sensors, receive data 

 from the sensors, record that data on board the spacecraft, and later 

 relay the data to ground stations for collation and analysis. Possible 

 terrestrial sensors re meteorological stations or buoys, oceanographic 

 buoys, gages strapped to the earth for measuring strains leading to 

 earthquakes, drifting balloons, ice islands, or any of a wide variety 

 of data platforms located on the surface of the earth or in its atmos- 

 phere. 



This first chart (SA66-15477) indicates schematically how this sys- 

 tem could be used to collect oceanographic and other earth resources 

 data. This, I think, is an excellent example of a system first conceived 

 for specific discipline purposes — in this case meteorological — which 

 has broad applicability for other uses, including oceanography. It is 

 quite easy to conceive how such a system could begin to solve many 

 of the problems hindering worldwide fixed or free buoy systems for 

 the study of currents and ocean depth profile data. Such a system could 

 greatly case some of the data recording problems on which the Na- 



