installation and maintenance are quite site specific and therefore no standard 

 "manual" can be written at this time. Bench mark connections and atmospheric 

 measurements made in conjunction with underwater pressure sensors are con- 

 sidered mandatory using the applicable state-of-the-art technology for the site. 

 Near real-time data transmission is highly desirable to ensure proper operation 

 of the station equipment and early availability of the data to the user community. 

 Also desirable is to make the field measurement system as automated as possible 

 and to connect the local measurement and reference system to the VLBI and 

 GPS global reference systems, if available. 



4.2 Recommendations for Future Study and Work 



The United States (and therefore NOAA/NOS) appears to have fallen behind 

 the other countries of the world in making water level measurements in hostile 

 environments and in particular the polar regions. The following general and 

 specific recommendations are made relating to future efforts that NOS should 

 continue or commence to ensure its world leadership in the area of water level 

 measurements. 



4.2.1 General Recommendations 



- Continue to actively support NOAA's Climate and Global Change Program 

 and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) GLOSS Program. 

 These two programs provide the network of international experts and hopefully 

 resources to obtain world-wide high quality standardized data from which valu- 

 able sea level products will be obtained. 



- Establish near and long-term objectives and goals for NOS for making 

 measurements in polar regions. A committee consisting of a subset of the 

 managers involved in the Climate and Global Change Program should prepare 

 such a list of goals and objectives for NOS over the next ten years initially and 

 then beyond. 



- Foster development of advanced technology through the DOC Small Busi- 

 ness Innovation Research (SBIR) Program and others means such as grants, 

 contracts and visiting research scientists/engineers. 



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