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The conclusion of a conference of this sort may be an appropriate time 

 to discuss the role of the Federal Government in air-sea interaction research, 

 since, as you know, considerable government attention is now directed to this 

 topic . 



Let me say first, that, not long ago, air-sea interaction research had 

 not been identified as such, but was carried out under either the National 

 Atmospheric Science Program or the National Oceanography Program. As a matter 

 of fact, this was the first year that an item named "air-sea interaction 

 research" has been carried in the Atmospheric Science Program. 



Why this recent burst of activities and special emphasis? For a long 

 time man concerned himself with problems of the sea. Obviously, phenomena at 

 the sea surface were always of greatest interest, and these are problems which, 

 in one way or another, are the direct result of meteorological events. For 

 example, water waves aroused the interest of the most brilliant minds of the 

 last 200 years. Names like Lagrange, Cauchy, Poisson, Airy, Stokes, Kelvin, 

 Euler, and others come to mind. Today, waves are still subjects of intense 

 investigations. Other examples could be cited such as concepts of the oceanic 

 circulation. As early as 1686, reference was made by Halley that the surface 

 circul-jtion of the ocean is wind- driven. It is most difficult to conceive for 

 the ocean such a simple model of meridional circulation such as the Hadley 

 cell in the atmosphere. For the ocean is heated and cooled at the surface, 

 or, in other words its heat sources and sinks are essentially at the same 

 geopotential . Meridional convection processes seem to be rather inefficient. 

 On the other hand, when about 80 years ago the first deep-sea temperatures 

 were taken in the tropical ocean by the Challenger Expedition and very low 

 temperatures were observed at great depth, it was immediately reasoned that 

 this water is of polar origin and must have descended to a great depth due to 

 cooling at the surface . The thermohaline circulation, which for a number of 

 years was subject to little attention, is now being restudied, for example 

 by Dr.K . Bryan. 



This merely illustrates the difficulties we face in defining air-sea 

 interaction research. It is quite possible -- and this has been done -- to 

 include in such a category almost all of meteorology and oceanography. How- 

 ever, for the purpose of this discussion we like to narrow the definition of 

 air-sea interaction because we, in the government, find it most advantageous 

 for administrative purposes to consider in a program only the direct aspects 

 of air-sea interactions. Of course, conferences such as this should not 

 adopt this narrow parochial view and should discuss broad problem areas . 



Historically, the Second World War had a profound inpact on both 

 oceanography and meteorology. Meteorology then advanced with the help of 

 modem high-speed computers to such an extent that realistic models of the 

 general circulation could be developed and tested and the entire prediction 

 service operated on a more objective basis. The degree of sophistication 

 incorporated in these models increased to a level that soon effects of the 



