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tional Academy of Sciences and others have made strong recommenda- 

 tions. In fact, with daily or twice daily interrogation of research buoys, 

 the amount of data obtained could be greatly increased over present 

 techniques and, furthermore, could be made available within a time 

 jDeriod of minutes as opposed to the weeks or months associated with 

 present buoy data collection techniques. 



The location feature of the system also could conceivably permit 

 broader application of free buoys by providing tracking and inventory 

 on a near real time basis. Accurate analyses of free buoy drift over a 

 long period of time would be a particularly useful tool for more accu- 

 rately charting ocean currents. 



The initial demonstration of this technique is planned for early 

 1968 using a polar orbiting meteorological satellite designated Nimbus 

 B. Participation of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute with 

 buoys in the North Atlantic, the Naval Oceanographic Office in the 

 mid- Atlantic and the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries in the Northeast 

 Pacific, will help to determine the true usefulness and cost effectiveness 

 of such a system. These user agencies are buying their own platform 

 equipment, I might point out. 



We are just starting to experiment with a second system for locating 

 remote sensors and gathering data from them. This next chart (SA67- 

 2398) shows schematicallj'- how this system, called the omega position 

 location experiment or OPLE for short, works. The remote sensor 

 equipment located on a buoy, ship, airplane, or balloon, receives VLF 

 signals from the Navy omega navigation stations and, on command, 

 translates the signals up to VHF frequency and transmits them 

 through ATS-III — ^that is our third Applications Teclmology Satel- 

 lite — to the ATS ground station. Sensor readings are then fed over 

 the same communication link to the ground station. After rather simple 

 computation and data reduction at the ground stations, we have in- 

 formation as to the location of the remote platform and the readings of 

 its sensors, whether ocean salinity, windspeed, temperature, or some 

 other parameter. Preliminary experiments using engineering models 

 of the sensor platform equipment and ATS-III have been conducted 

 and have provided promising results. Of course, further studies and 

 cost analyses of these new teclmiques will be required before one can 

 State with assurance the most effective means of meeting the multi- 

 disciplinary purposes of ocean science and technology. This experiment 

 is, however, typical of one of the many new developments which does 

 hold promise for merger of ocean, air, and space technologies. 



As indicated earlier, the other role that space activity can play in 

 the Nation's oceanographic program is the direct observation of the 

 world's oceans and their boundaries. A spectacular suggestion of the 

 promise of this role is shown in the next chart (6T-HC-723). This 

 color picture taken by ATS-III, which is in geostationary orbit over 

 the mouth of the Amazon River, shows the whole Atlantic Ocean from 

 Greenland at the top to Antarctic on the bottom, and from the Ameri- 

 cas on the left to Europe and Africa on the right. It also shows a 

 large section of the Pacific Ocean to the west of South America. While 

 this color camera was developed as a meteorological experiment, it 

 also suggests the promise of such instruments as oceanographic tools. 

 Although the ground resolution of this camera is only on the order of 



