8 
The AEC also supports research in the world oceans. Advances 
have been made in subjects such as circulation rates within the 
mixed layer of the oceans, vertical microstructure in the oceans, and 
abyssal water circulation. 
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION 
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) 
oceanography-related activities are primarily concerned with finding 
ways that remote-sensing techniques, data relay techniques, and 
drifting buoy position location techniques can be combined with 
appropriate aerospace technology to satisfy the needs of Federal, 
State, and regional agencies for improved coastal-zone or open-ocean 
data acquisition and data collection systems. 
As NASA has no operational role or mission in the discipline area 
of oceanography, NASA maintains a close cooperative working rela- 
tionship with those Federal agencies that do have such roles and 
missions, to insure that NASA’s oceanographic efforts are responsive 
to their needs. NASA not only looks to these agencies to define their 
requirements for data, but also seeks their active participation in the 
planning and conduct of experiments in the field. 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
The marine science activities of the Smithsonian Institution involve 
the systematics and ecology of marine organisms and investigations 
of marine biological and geological phenomena. Support services are 
provided in sampling, sorting, identification, curation, and data 
management of natural history specimens. 
The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) maintains the 
largest collection of biological specimens and geological samples in the 
world. These collections are actively being studied by scientists and 
constitute an important resource for research on current and historical 
environmental conditions. 
The Smithsonian Oceanographic Sorting Center (SOSC) is a service 
unit of the Smithsonian Institution operated by the international en- 
vironmental science program. Acting as a central processing labora- 
tory, SOSC receives, sorts, records, curates, and distributes marine as 
well as freshwater collections in order to efficiently and accurately 
make these collections available to specialists. 
INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS OF Data MANAGEMENT 
Local, national, and regional oceanographic activities in and among 
foreign countries constitute a major and very important source of 
data. Data collected by these non-U.S. activities and acquired by the 
United States through various exchange arrangements are vital to 
insure worldwide coverage of oceanographic data corresponding to our 
Nation’s concerns in the global environment. 
The primary international mechanism for the centralization and 
international exchange of oceanographic and related environmental 
data is the World Data Center system. World Data Center A—Ocean- 
ography is collocated with the U.S. National Oceanographic Data 
Center (NODC) and this arrangement provides for a steady and 
