35 
SURFACE HEIGHT (cm) 
SURFACE T(°C) 
Fig. 1. Surface height and temperature fields from the study of Semtner and Mintz (1977). On 
the left are instantaneous fields from an eddy resolving simulation with 37 km gridsize. The 
time-averaged fields from this experiment are shown in the center. On the right are the steady 
fields from a coarser grid experiment (75 km gridsize) with constant eddy diffusion coefficients 
(Ay = Ay = 103 m2 s-1). 
It is suggested that a concentrated effort to understand the North Atlantic, involving the 
use and close interaction of conventional oceanographic measurements, satellite observations, 
and improved numerical models, could significantly advance our understanding of the oceanic com- 
ponent of the climate system. 
