Environmental Forecasting Program 



The purpose of this program Is to provide the scientific base 

 necessary for an Improved capability to predict changes in the 

 environment. Understanding the state of the oceans and the con- 

 ditions in the atmosphere is critical for long-range and accurate 

 environmental forecasting. Four major programs to date focus on 

 these areas and are described in entries 312 through 315. 



312. CLIMATE: LONG-RANGE INVESTIGATION, MAPPING, AND PREDICTION 

 STUDY: CLIMAP 



A U.S. -sponsored project, CLIMAP aims to understand and 

 describe climatic changes over the past 700,000 years by recreating 

 surface ocean changes associated with glacial and Interglacial 

 transitions using ocean sediment cores. 



313. INTERNATIONAL SOUTHERN OCEAN STUDIES: ISOS 



Proposed by the U.S. Committee on Polar Research, ISOS as 

 recommended will consist of many field studies of ocean dynamics and 

 monitoring and will cooperate closely with the Global Atmospheric 

 Research Program (GARP) and its subprogram, the Polar Experiment in 

 the Southern Hemisphere (POLEX-SOUTH). IOC is collaborating in the 

 development of the program through its International Coordination 

 Group for the Southern Oceans (SOC). Preliminary planning began in 

 1973. 



The first field program, known as F DRAKE — First Dynamic Response 

 and Kinematics Experiment in the Drake Passage — began in 1975 and 

 terminated in 1977. It was concerned with a study of the Antarctic 

 Circumpolar Current (ACCP). A Second Dynamic Response and Kinematics 

 Experiment (S DRAKE) is planned for 1979. In 1978, a program to study 

 the interaction of the ACC with the Macquarle Ridge was included in 

 ISOS. Known as the Ridge Interaction and Downstream Gradient Experi- 

 ment (RIDGE), it involved a cluster array of current meters operated 

 by the New Zealand Oceanographic Institute (NZOI) in cooperation with 

 the United States. 



314. JOINT U.S.-U.S.S.R. MID-OCEANS DYNAMICS EXPERIMENT: POLYMODE 

 POLYMODE is a combination of two programs: the U.S.S.R. POLYGON 



project, a continuing series of experiments investigating mesoscale 

 phenomena in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and the Mid-Ocean 

 Dynamics Experiment (MODE), a United States-United Kingdom experiment 

 to investigate the role of medium-scale, geostrophic eddies in the 

 general circulation of the oceans. 



A Joint POLYMODE Organizing Committee (JPMOC) composed of repre- 

 sentatives of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United 

 States was established under the terms of the U.S.S.R. -U.S. Coopera- 

 tion in Studies of the World Ocean. Other countries were invited to 

 participate. Scientific advice is provided by SCOR's Working Group 

 on Internal Dynamics of the Ocean, formerly the Working Group on 

 Oceanographic Basis of Monitoring and Prediction Systems. 



Preliminary testing experiments for MODE were conducted from 1971 

 to 1972 in a 2-degree square southwest of Bermuda at about 29 °N 

 69 °W. These, known first as Pre-Mode, were later redesignated as 

 MODE-0 and MODE-I. The POLYGON site was at about 17 °N 33 °W. POLYMODE 

 is now concentrated in the Western North Atlantic between about 5° 

 and about 40°N. Field experiments include the Statistical Geographi- 

 cal Experiment designed to explore the nature of eddy phenomena and 

 their geographic variability through the use of several moored arrays 



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