more urgent needs elsewhere for their few officers educated through the small 

 oceanography program of the immediate past. 



The three courses mentioned earlier pertaining to ocean waves forecasting, 

 sea ice forecasting, and oceanographic forecasting demonstrate two aspects of 

 the capabilities of the U. S. Naval Postgraduate School as reflected by our 

 Department of Meteorology and Oceanography: 1) to respond quickly to par- 

 ticular Navy requirements and 2) to undertake the development of courses in 

 new and essentially untried fields; the latter aspect depends heavily on cur- 

 rent research, often contributed by various Navy agencies and often aided by 

 our own research efforts. 



The Ocean Waves Forecasting course differs from conventional courses 

 offered in several of the civilian oceanography departments of the United 

 States in that laboratory exercises have been developed to give the student 

 officer experience in application of the various principles described in the 

 lectures; the final and major problem of the term involves working with ac- 

 tual weather charts over a period of several days in the North Pacific Ocean 

 to prepare wave forecasts for nearby Point Sur, California. Wave records 

 measured in the nearshore region at Point Sur have been obtained for the 

 same period and have been analyzed with great care for use in verification. 



The Sea Ice Forecasting course, after reviewing the latest Russian and 

 United States developments, again goes to laboratory exercises to give prac- 

 tical experience in preparing sea ice forecasts. Two recent Master's theses 

 have dealt with improvement and computerizing the ice forecasting models now 

 in use. 



The Oceanographic Forecasting course reviews current research on ocean 

 thermal structure as related to other oceanographic and weather parameters, 

 and attempts to evaluate the various forecasting methods through laboratory 

 exercises. The current state of this art is explained and areas of needed 

 research are pointed out. The course includes examples of using oceano- 

 graphic charts in preparing sonar range charts for tactical use and reviews 

 these various applications. Several Master's theses have dealt with empir- 

 ical forecasting equations and with model studies to evaluate the relative 

 importance of various air-sea interaction processes in determining upper 

 ocean thermal structure. 



SUMMARY 



The Department of Meteorology and Oceanography at the United States 

 Naval Postgraduate School includes a capable and experienced group teaching 

 oceanography with a view toward particular Navy needs. The present capa- 

 bility is in physical oceanography, but new faculty members possess capa- 

 bilities in the biological and engineering aspects of oceanography and it 

 is expected that a widening scope of oceanography aspects will be included 



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