634 NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM—1965 
PRODUCTION WORK 
Bathythermograph Data 
Graph Number 2 shows the level of bathythermograph (BT) data processing and Graph 
Number 3 receipt of BT's during Fiscal Year 1962. 
The contract let to John |. Thompson Company (JITCO) of Washington, D. C. to reduce the 
backlog of BT data was terminated January 1962. During the same month, the processing procedures 
of BT data were re-evaluated and certain quality control checks have been added to increase the 
quality and usability of the data. Other modifications are expected to follow in the near future. 
These revised procedures, along with loss of manhours to fulfill ‘‘data out’' requests, have reduced 
our monthly production from 6,000 observations per month to about 1,500 per month. 
The NODC has agreements with Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) and Woods Hole 
Oceanographic Institution (WHOl) for exchange of BT data. Under the arrangement, NODC pro- 
vides to SIO two prints of each completely processed BT observation for the Pacific and Indian 
Oceans; SIO provides NODC with one print of each SIO processed observation. NODC provides 
to WHOI one print of each processed BT observation for the North Atlantic Ocean; WHOI provides 
NODC with one print of each WHOI processed observation. 
The NODC has been investigating means of automating the processing of BT data. At 
present, we are testing and evaluating an Automatic BT Slide Holding and Advancing System de- 
signed and built for us by the Instrumentation Division of the Oceanographic Office. It is estimated 
that this device may save up to 3.0 man years of work annually along with the elimination of con- 
siderable repetitive handling and sorting of glass BT slides. Additionally, IBM, Gulton Industries and 
Hytech Corporation have expressed interest in developing an automatic scanning device to read and 
digitize BT slide negatives or prints. Each has been supplied the necessary samples of data and 
material for the development of such a system. 
Also planned for the near future are the construction and installation of an Automatic Film 
Feed and Cutting System to be adapted to the BT cameras and the conversion of the Ozalid machines 
to operate under the Anhydrous System. It is hoped that the automation of many of the BT proc- 
essing procedures will reduce the time required for the digitization of the more than 750,000 bathy- 
thermograph observations in the NODC archives. 
Oceanographic Station Data 
Oceanographic station data production is shown by month and for the period covered by 
this report in Graph 4. The average production rate has been about 5,000 stations per month. A 
total of 60,619 stations (of which 11,537 were coded and keypunched under contract with the Sanyo 
Surveying Company of Japan, but computed and edited by the NODC) was processed during the 
past year; the oceanographic station data archives now total about 215,000 stations. The reduced 
production rate in the last quarter of Fiscal Year 1962 was caused by the transfer of personnel from 
production work to Data Out projects for NUOS, BCF and others. It was impossible to recruit the 
additional staff required to maintain work in both areas. Personnel shifts were made assigning priority 
to Data Out projects and temporarily de-emphasizing routine production work. 
