OBJECTIVE ONE - TO DESCRIBE THE DISTRIBUTION OF PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL 

 PROPERTIES OF THE OCEANS AND TO UNDERSTAND THE DYNAMIC PROCESSES WHICH 

 AFFECT THIS DISTRIBUTION 



No portion of the oceanographic research program is so fundamental to the 

 understanding of the ocean as is the study of its motion. Whether it be 

 small scale turbulence or general circulation patterns, these movements 

 determine the distribution of the physical, chemical and biological 

 properties within the sea„ In a like manner, the air-sea interactions 

 and geological characteristics of the sea bottom are either affected by 

 or affect the ocean circulation. It is the study of the water's charac- 

 teristics and dynamics that pervades all of oceanography. Since before 

 the time of the Challenger Expedition in 1872, which is usually ac- 

 knowledged as the "beginning of oceanography", man has striven to describe 

 the ocean movements and to determine the dynamic forces which drive them. 

 Through field studies much has been learned about the surface circulation, 

 its westward intensification and the meandering nature of its major 

 currents. Similarly, theoretical and model studies have produced sig- 

 nificant advances in the understanding of the ocean movement. Yet, less 

 than ten years ago, a new ocean current was discovered in the Equatorial 

 Pacific which is second only to the Kuroshio. Neither the origin nor 

 terminus of this Equatorial Undercurrent has been fully described, nor 

 have the dynamics been successfully determined „ This one example only 

 serves to illustrate the immensity and complexity of research tasks 

 devoted toward achieving objective one. 



DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE 



DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY 



Office of Naval Research FY-62 $5,23U,000 



FY-63 $6,397,000 

 Every seagoing research ship supported by this office contributes contin- 

 uously to the stockpile of descriptive information about the oceans. 

 Soundings, bathythermographs, hydrographic stations, biological trawls and 

 sediment cores are routine procedures on research expeditions. Data of 

 this nature will be collected in nearly every geographic area of the world, 

 including the Norwegian, North, Baltic, Mediterranean, Bering, Chukchi, 

 Caribbean and South China Seas, as well as the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, 

 Arctic and Antarctic Oceans „ Much of this work is done in areas of strategic 

 interest to the Navy. 



Within objective one, problems of general and detailed circulation of the 

 oceans are receiving the most attention. Theoretical approaches to determine 

 the ocean circulation are pursued actively at the Woods Hole Oceanographic 

 Institution, New York University, Chesapeake Bay Institute, University of 

 Stockholm and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Recently, a series 

 of equations was derived that described the entire mass transport of the 

 Atlantic Ocean. To improve these equations future work will be directed 



