aboard merchant vessels would be available to the 

 Navy; this is essentially how the present system 

 works although it is more fragmented. In meteor- 

 ology, basic data are collected by the Department 

 of Transportation, the Department of Defense, 

 Department of Commerce, and certain properly 

 certified private groups. 



A single civil communication system would be 

 established for the collection of data by the civil 

 agency. For purposes of reduced vulnerability and 

 military security some portions of the network 

 would exist in parallel with DOD. 



For data processing and forecasting it is essen- 

 tial that the civil agency and the DOD maintain 

 separate facilities. As the scientific basis for 

 environmental prediction is strengthened it will be 

 possible to rely on high-speed electronic com- 

 puters for more of the supporting operations: for 

 example, data checking and communication buf- 

 fers. With increasing automation of the forecasting 

 process the system becomes more reliant on such 

 automatic equipment, and as a corollary, more 

 vulnerable. To provide back-up and increased 

 reUability it is essential to the National interest 

 that such major environmental data processing 

 centers operate in parallel. 



The military and civil services must tailor their 

 forecasts for particular classes of users, and it is 

 expected that both the civil agency and the DOD 

 would maintain relatively independent forecast 

 dissemination activities. As in meteorology today, 

 the civil agency would provide broad forecasts for 

 the general public, industry, and other Federal 

 agencies including the military; in cases where 

 these must be refined to meet the needs of special 

 interests the refinement would be the responsi- 

 bility of the private sector. In some cases other 

 Federal agencies would refine the basic forecasts 

 to serve special classes of operations. DOD would 

 continue to provide specialized envirorunental 

 services to meet military requirements. 



In addition to the provision of broad services to 

 the private sector, and special military require- 

 ments, there are many environmental services 

 required by public agencies at all levels of Govern- 

 ment. 



Special consideration must be given to the 



interface between a local small-scale environmental 

 activity and large-scale global services. One ex- 

 ample of special interest concerns the myriad of 

 activities in the Nation's estuaries. Many agencies 



operating in the public interest are conducting 

 monitoring programs that include measurements 

 of physical, as well as chemical and biological 

 parameters. Such measurements are conducted 

 with specific reference to controlling pollution 

 levels and examining the effects of such pollution 

 on marine life, and would normally be the 

 responsibility of an agency charged with a mission 

 related to estuarine pollution control and abate- 

 ment. 



The data collected in such programs will be on 

 a scale considerably smaller, and often on a greater 

 frequency, than those required to support the 

 major environmental prediction services con- 

 sidered in this report. The relatively small-scale 

 behavior of an estuary, however, is strongly 

 influenced by the larger scale motions of the 

 oceans and the atmosphere. For this reason, the 

 local agencies conducting estuarine-oriented pro- 

 grams must be assured rapid availability of appro- 

 priate data collected by the larger scale network. 



The data collected and forecasts issued by the 

 NEMPS would serve as major inputs to the more 

 detailed forecasts and resulting regulatory actions 

 of the estuarine agencies. On the other hand, the 

 special mission-oriented data collected, typically 

 on a relatively fine mesh, within the estuary would 

 not be required for the operation of the NEMPS. 

 In some cases a single data collection station might 

 serve both a local estuary activity as well as the 

 broader mission of the NEMPS. 



In the atmosphere an essentially analogous 

 situation occurs in the monitoring and control of 

 pollution. As a result of recent legislation, it is 

 intended that Regional Air Quality Commissions 

 will be established, which may include more than 

 one local political subdivision. In order to effec- 

 tively protect the public, a regional air pollution 

 control agency will require local measurements of 

 the concentrations of major pollutants as well as 

 appropriate meteorological data. The dispersion of 

 these pollutants within the region is a function of 

 these parameters as well as of measurements that 

 describe the "large-scale" meteorological situation. 



The regional pollution control agency will 

 therefore require data describing the relatively 

 large-scale meteorological situation in addition to 

 meteorological and air pollution concentration 

 data on a much finer grid within the control 

 region. In many cases, physical parameters meas- 

 ured for the purpose of serving the National 



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