62 



Again, Dr. Stratton, I want to congratulate you and your fellow 

 commissioners on an excellent landmark report, I have one question 

 of ]io great moment. How did you arrive at the name NOAA? Why 

 notNOA? 



Dr. Strattokt. This refers to the reason for including "Atmos- 

 pheric" in it ? 



j\Ir. Downing. Yes. It sounds like it might be redundant. 



Dr. Stratton. It was to emphasize our conviction that one could 

 not wisely isolate the problems of the ocean and land from the global 

 atmosphere. There have been questions about the whole problem of an 

 environmental agency. But if we were to call it an environmental 

 agency, we would lose what this Commission was set up for, which is 

 terribly important, the emphasis upon the oceans. We believe that it is 

 important to recognize the coupling between the environment, the 

 global atmosphere, and the oceans. 



May I, with your permission, ask if someone here would like to 

 comment on that ? 



I think, perhaps, Mr. Perry. 



Mr. Perry. We originally did call it NOA, and we realized that we 

 left out the important part of the global envelope so we added "Atmos- 

 pheric" to get the complete picture because you will never get control 

 of the atmosphere without getting knowledge of the ocean. 



Mr. Downing. But is that to be included in oceanography ? 



]\Ir. Perry. Yes, very definitely. The oceans occupy 71 percent of the 

 earth's surface, and they are the pricipal factor affecting the weather. 



Mr. MosHER. Will the gentleman yield ? 



Is it not true that the oceans and the earth's atmosphere are essen- 

 tially part of the same system ? 



Mr. Perry. Yes. 



Mr. MosHER. You cannot adequately deal with the oceans without 

 dealing with the atmosphere. I judge that to be the point. 



Mr. Lennon. How is it related to the inclusion of the Environ- 

 mental Science Services Administration into this reorganization ? We 

 know some of the missions and responsibility of the Environmental 

 Science Services Administration which are related both to the atmos- 

 phere and to the sea. I wonder if the fact that that is included in this 

 total package is one of the reasons why we have selected the name 

 NOAA^ 



Dr. Stratton. Yes, that is correct. But the inclusion of ESSA was 

 not simply because of its great resources but because we considered its 

 mission to be directly related to some of the missions we were propos- 

 ing for the oceans — the study of the movement and the currents of air 

 and water and their environmental relation. 



Mr. Downing. This is not an encroachment on the jurisdiction of 

 the space committee in any way ? 



Dr. Stratton. No, I do not believe so. 



May I ask Mr. Reedy to make a comment ? 



Mr. Reedy. I would like to make one comment. Congressman Mosher 

 put his finger on the basic point which is that there is a continual inter- 

 action between the ocean and the atmosphere in which each contributes 

 to the other, a great part of the atmosphere literally being drawn out of 

 the ocean and, of course, returning to the ocean. It affects our weather. 

 It affects climate. It is impossible to separate oceanic research from 

 atmospheric research. 



