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field investigations extending over several years from planning, through 
field operations to data analysis. They are being, or are scheduled 
to be, carried out in the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Indian and the 
southern oceans aboard vessels of both countries. 
The projects, which were approved at either the First Joint Commit- 
tee Meeting in February 1974 or the Second Joint Committee Meeting 
in May 1975, are as follows for each of the areas of cooperation: 
Large-scale ocean-atmosphere interaction, including laboratory 
studies, oceanic experiments, and mathematical modeling of the 
ocean-atmosphere system. 
Both countries have been active participants in the oceanographic 
part of the multinational GARP Atlantic Tropical Experiment (GATE) 
organized by the International Counsel of Scientific Unions and the 
World Meteorological Organization. In the summer of 1974, the field 
phase of this, the largest and most complex international scientific 
experiment ever attempted, was conducted. Its objective was to im- 
prove our understanding and our ability to model the processes which 
determine global weather and climate and their variations. The 
oceanographic phase of this experiment consisted of descriptive studies 
of the tropical current system, the study of the dynamic response 
of the ocean to atmospheric forcing, the study of equatorial current 
systems, the study of upper layer processes in relation to atmospheric 
convective cloud systems, and the energy budget of the mixed layer 
of the ocean. The United States and Soviet Union had 9 and 13 
ships respectively involved in this field experiment, which had the 
central scientific objective to determine how the different scales of 
weather systems in the tropics interact with each other and with 
the underlying ocean. 
Recognizing the significance of this major experiment and the con- 
tributions being made by both countries, they agreed to foster 
cooperation under the agreement to further ensure sucess of the field 
phase of the experiment. As a result, the Akademician Kurchatov 
deployed U.S. buoys as part of a multinational equatorial array to 
investigate the equatorial undercurrent. Two U.S. scientists also con- 
ducted current profiling operations from aboard the vessel. In addition, 
an intercomparison of shipboard salinometers used by both countries 
during the field program was carried out and a common format was 
adopted to facilitate the exchange of data. 
Much further effort is still required in the analysis of the GATE 
data and for planning for the First GARP Global Experiment. The 
two countries have agreed to extend their efforts and seek to jointly 
pursue those objectives. As part of these efforts, plans are being 
considered for a coordinated oceanographic study in the monsocn 
region of the Indian Ocean to understand its response to wind stress. 
Both Soviet and U.S. scientists have been conducting research in 
the Indian Ocean and plans for such work are to be coordinated 
with a view toward joint activities, including participation by Indian 
scientists and scientists from other countries. 
The Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation, 
through its International Decade of Ocean Exploration (IDOE), are 
jointly sponsoring a North Pacific Experiment (NORPAX) which is 
to study fluctuations in the upper layers of the North Pacific Ocean 
and the relation of these fluctuations to the overlying and adjoining 
