-Equally important is the fact that the oceans 

 are in constant motion over the globe. What 

 happens in one area of the oceans can affect the 

 oceans or coastal waters a thousand miles away. 

 The marine environment cannot be viewed as a 

 series of parts; only a global system can monitor 

 the oceans and forecast its changes. 



III. THE OCEAN-EARTH-ATMOSPHERE PHYS- 

 ICAL SYSTEM 



The report has thus far considered a monitoring 

 and prediction system for the marine environment 

 —but this is artifical because the oceans, the 

 atmosphere, and the solid earth are not separate 

 and distinct but are elements of the continuum 

 which we call the geophysical environment. These 

 elements are in constant interaction. To under- 

 stand and predict the oceans, we must understand 

 the total environment. 



Similar conclusions were reached by the Com- 

 mittee on Oceanography of the National Academy 

 of Sciences'* and the Panel on Oceanography of 

 the President's Science Advisory Committee.' We 

 have reviewed this aspect of their reports with 

 particular care, for it is crucial in determining the 

 kind of monitoring and prediction system the 

 Nation should develop. This panel concurs in the 

 view that ocean conditions and processes cannot 

 be monitored, studied, understood, and predicted 

 in isolation, but only in the context of the total 

 geophysical environment. 



The validity of this view can be seen in 

 different ocean phenomena. Ocean surface cur- 

 rents and the "shape" of the ocean surface, for 

 example, are primarily the result of the winds in 

 the lower atmosphere. Large ocean swells observed 

 on the U.S. Pacific Coast are generated by winds in 

 the atmosphere over the Southern Atlantic Ocean. 

 The tsunami is a destructive ocean phenomenon, 

 but it is generated by motions of the solid earth's 

 crust. In their turn, the oceans affect what 

 happens in all parts of the physical environment. 

 The hurricane obtains its energy by absorbing 



sensible heat directly from the ocean and through 

 the release of latent heat by condensation of water 

 vapor supplied by the ocean. 



4 



Committee on Oceanography, National Academy of 

 Sciences-National Research Council, Oceanography 

 1966-Achievements and Opportunities, NAS-NRC, Wash- 

 ington, D.C. (1967). 



Panel on Oceanography, President's Science Advisory 

 Committee, Effective Use of the Sea, Washington, D.C. 

 (1966) 



Figure 3. Eye of Hurricane Betsy, photo- 

 graphed by Air Force reconnaissance aircraft 

 at an altitude of 11 miles, 90 miles north of 

 Grand Turk Island, British West Indies, Sept 

 2, 1965. (Air Force photo) 



On a longer time scale the oceans play a large 

 role in the general circulation of the atmosphere, 

 although geophysicists feel that the earth's north- 

 south energy balance is primarily maintained by 

 atmospheric circulations.* At high latitudes, for 

 example, cold ocean water sinks in certain regions 

 and flows toward the equator at great depths. 

 Even a weak circulation of this type results in a 

 relatively large transport of energy toward the 

 poles. At present the magnitude of this oceanic 

 energy flux and its role in maintaining the earth's 

 energy balance is unknown. 



At least as important is the fact that the air-sea 

 water exchange is the mechanism that provides the 

 water for precipitation over the globe. So pervad- 

 ing is the total atmosphere-ocean exchange that it 

 has been hypothesized that shifts in the positions 

 of major ocean currents may be responsible for 



Joint Panel on Air-Sea Interaction, National Academy 

 of Sciences-National Research Council, Interaction Be- 

 tween the Atmosphere and the Oceans, NAS-NRC, 

 Washington, D.C. (1962). 



II- 11 



