LONG-RANGE OUTLOOK FOR OCEANOGRAPHIC TELEMETERING 
by JAMES M. SNODGRASS, Head, Special Developments 
Scripps Institution of Oceanography 
University of California, San Diego 
La Jolla, California 
ABSTRACT 
With expanding oceanographic re- 
search programs, communications promise 
te be a troublesome problem. Existing 
frequencies in the radio communications 
spectrum are almost completely absorbed 
by military, commercial and amateur in- 
terests. New means must be devised to 
communicate with research and survey 
ships. Circuits which will permit large 
amounts of data to be transmitted with 
high accuracy are needed. 
Data telemetering over vast ocean 
areas will require many new techniques 
Since present practice in the missile and 
flight test field is limited to line of 
sight. Conflicts with ocean missile 
ranges will need to be resolved, as well 
as devising suitable international 
*Contribution from the Scripps Institu- 
tion of Oceanography, New Series, No.0O0O. 
This work was supported in part by funds 
from the Office of Naval Research, U.S. 
Navy. Reproduction in part or entirety 
is permitted for any purposes of the 
United States Government. 
163 
agreements to permit long-range tele- 
metering and the establishment of un- 
attended deep-sea buoys and instrument 
stations. 
Telemetering over ranges of several 
thousands of miles is necessary from un- 
manned floating instrument stations. 
Proposed communications types of satel- 
lites offer promising possibilities. 
Communications, in one form or 
another, is inextricably linked with 
oceanographic research and oceanograph- 
ically-oriented research projects. Un- 
fortunately, it is only within compara- 
tively recent time that the oceano- 
graphers have begun to become aware of 
their needs. The oceanographers' needs 
involve truly world-wide requirements. 
Expanding oceanographic programs are 
planned which will require the use of in- 
strumented buoys and the transmission of 
information by means of radio tele- 
metering both to ship and shore based 
stations. It appears to be almost im- 
possible to plan anything like a serious 
