Present estimates indicate that the flux estimates 

 will be required in the absence of any direct 

 measurements of flux. Therefore, it must be 

 possible to estimate the fluxes from standard 

 observed data: air and water temperatures, 

 humidity, wind speed, and sea state. 



It should be noted that this scientific limitation 

 has been recognized for some years, and was 

 outlined by the Joint Panel on Air-Sea Interaction 

 of the National Academy of Sciences in 1962.^ 

 Their report sparked the formation of the Air-Sea 

 Interaction Panel, reporting to the Interagency 

 Committee for Oceanography and the Interdepart- 

 mental Committee for the Atmospheric Sciences; 

 the Air-Sea Interaction Panel has served as a forum 

 for exchange of information among the different 

 Federal agencies conducting programs in this area. 

 As a result of the Panel's motivation several 

 Federal agencies are planning a series of major 

 sea-air interaction field experiments coordinated 

 by the Department of Commerce. 



The first is planned for the summer of 1969 in 

 the Barbados area.* These experiments will pro- 

 vide the opportunity to develop the parameteriza- 

 tion called for above, as well as to cross-check the 

 data collected by different sensors. 



The need for atmospheric wind data in forecast- 

 ing ocean waves and swell has been stressed. With 

 an understanding of sea-air interaction, and ade- 

 quate near-interface data our abiUty to forecast 

 ocean temperature, depth of mixed layer, and 

 near-surface currents would be enhanced. 



The atmosphere and oceans interact on many 

 different scales and modes. The exchange of gases 

 between atmosphere and ocean requires further 

 investigation; this may yield the key to the final 

 disposition of carbon dioxide dispersed into the 

 atmosphere. The sea is the source of salt particles, 

 which play an important role as nuclei in the 

 formation of precipitation, as well as of the water 

 itself. 



At the other end of the spectrum the atmo- 

 sphere-ocean interaction plays a key role in the 

 global redistribution of the energy received from 



Joint Panel on Air-Sea Interaction, National Acad- 

 emy of Sciences-National Research Council, Interaction 

 Between the Atmosphere and the Oceans, NAS-NRC, 

 Washington, D.C. (1962). 



^Plan for a Major Field ExperimeM in Support of the 

 Federal Air-Sea Interaction Research Program, U.S. De- 

 partment of Commerce, ESSA, Institute foi Ocean- 

 ography, March 1967, Washington, D.C. 



the sun. Although still largely empirical, long-range 

 weather forecasting techniques require extensive 

 ocean surface temperature data. Anomalies in sea 

 surface temperature have been found to be closely 

 associated with major shifts in weather. Some 

 success has been achieved recently by computer- 

 prepared forecasts of monthly and seasonal 

 temperatures in the atmosphere-ocean-continent 

 system, which included ocean surface tempera- 

 tures as a forecast parameter. The model has also 

 been used to forecast monthly departures from 

 normal of the ocean surface temperature; this 

 model requires extensive atmospheric data as 

 input. ^ Additional research is in progress, relating 

 large-scale atmospheric and sea-surface tempera- 

 ture anomalies in the Pacific, using data provided 

 by satellite infrared sea-surface observations;* 

 such interactions have been noted by other 

 investigators.' Numerical calculations have been 

 conducted, which include the effect of the sea- 

 surface temperature field on the large-scale atmo- 

 spheric circulations.'" 



Progress is also being made in the development 

 of computer models which attempt to unify the 

 atmosphere and the ocean; some success has been 

 achieved in predicting the gross features of both 

 the atmosphere and the oceans." 



II. SCALES OF MOTION 



As additional data describing both near-surface 

 and deep ocean currents become available, we find 

 that the observed current may actually have only a 

 weak relation to the mean currents. To study 



Adem, J., On the physical basis for the numerical 

 prediction of monthly and seasonal temperatures in the 

 tioposhere-ocean-continent system. Monthly Weather Re- 

 view, 92(3). pp. 91-104, 1964; Experiments Aiming at 

 Monthly and Seasonal Numerical Weather Prediction, 

 Monthly Weather Review, 93(8) pp. 495-503, 1965; 

 Numerical prediction of mean monthly ocean tempera- 

 ture. Unpublished manuscript. 



^Personal communication from L. AUison, NASA. 



^Namias, J., 1959. Recent Seasonal Interaction be- 

 tween Northern Pacific Waters and the Overlying Atmo- 

 spheric Circulation, Journal of Geophysical Research, 

 Vol. 64, pp. 631-646. 



"'Mintz, Y., 1965, Very Long-Term Global Integration 

 of the Primitive Equations of Atmospheric Motion, 

 Technical Note No. 66, WMO-IUGG Symposium on 

 Research and Development Aspects of Long-Range Fore- 

 casting, Boulder, Colorado, 1964. 



"Manabe, S., and K. Bryan, Numerical Results From a 

 Joint Ocean-Atmosphere General Calculation Model, 

 paper presented at 14th General Assembly, lUGG, Lu- 

 cerne, September-October 1967. 



11-48 



