C. Ocean Structures: Ability for long-term emplacement of instruments on the seafioor or 

 tethering to the bottom by an anchor is increasingly needed by many ocean programs. Bottom 

 landers are growing larger and more complex. There are still many areas of the deep ocean 

 where mounting of such devices is impossible or risky because of high energy conditions in the 

 near bottom and strong shears within the water column. New materials and ideas need to be 

 developed and tested so that future ocean science programs may have reliable and long-lasting 

 structures for mounting experiments, such as those required for the hydrothermal vents 

 program in the Ocean Lithosphere initiative. 



D. Supercomputers: Ocean science investigators are increasingly accessing modern 

 supercomputers. The FY 1985 NSF initiative to establish an ocean modeling facility at NCAR and 

 to provide broad-band communications links is a vital first step. The field of Geophysical Fluid 

 Dynamics (GFD) has made signal contributions to modeling and prediction of atmospheric 

 behavior. Major inroads into critical issues concerning ocean circulation will similarly be 



made with the advent of new supercomputer capabilities. They will profoundly influence 

 interactions between theory and observation in ocean physics. In this plan it is assumed that the 

 supercomputing capability for ocean sciences will continue to expand as modeling needs of all of 

 the sub-disciplines grow. Management in OCE will remain with the disciplinary programs, but 

 Ocean Technology will continue to support basic hardware and communications equipment 

 acquisition. 



It is increasingly apparent that ocean science investigations are highly dependent upon the 

 availability of sophisticated and appropriate technology. To the future needs, outlined above, can 

 be added the increasing need to access, on a broader scale, the remotest parts of the vast reaches 

 of the ocean. Data gaps in such locations as the polar oceans, the Indian Ocean, the South Atlantic 

 and Pacific Oceans, and deep ocean basins and trenches increasingly impede formulation of 

 large-scale theories of ocean and earth phenomena. Cost-effective technology to access and 

 sample these regions is lacking. Research and development focusing on expendable systems, 

 air-launched systems, remote sensing systems, and intelligent mobile systems could help to 

 meet research initiatives and enhancements discussed in the Long-Range Plan. 



IV. Funding Requirements 



Major growth in this program area is recommended as an essential part of the new global 

 program. Support for advanced technology and systems is directly coupled to specific initiatives 

 under this program. A summary budget for the core programs, areas of critical need, and the 

 global studies is included in Table F of Section IV. 



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