1.3.1 Introduction
The late 1970s saw the end of a decade or more of
experimental and analytical studies of the eddy
field in limited parts of the deep ocean (Robinson,
1983). Numerical models, bounded by the power
of available computers, were probing in similarly
limited regions of the ocean basins. We were
excited about what was being learnt and could see
all manner of questions that needed to be addressed
about the physical processes. Satellite altimetry
was beginning to make an impact. There were
more than enough questions of importance to keep
us going in our traditional individualistic way,
interspersed with the occasional grand expedition.
However, there was a groundswell in the 1970s,
both within and outside the community, that we
should be paying more attention to the relevance
of our work to the world at large. (Smaller-scale
processes such as surface wave research had made
this transition much earlier, supported by an
already perceived practical need and by largely
classical fluid dynamics.) Though there were other
important strands of enquiry of practical interest,
a growing concern for the global impact of climate
change presented a remarkable opportunity for a
refocusing of large-scale research towards global
scientific problems.
In this chapter we attempt to describe in a personal, partial and informal way the evolution of a
great experiment that, through a haze of (necessary) acronyms and some bureaucracy, emerges
as it was started, as a sustained and we believe
successful joint endeavour by many laboratories
and individual scientists from many nations.
1.3.2 Large-scale oceanography in the
1960s and 1970s
At the start of the 1960s, the evidence for an
active dynamical deep ocean was just emerging
following the year-long observations made by the
Aries expedition in 1959–60 in a small area of the
western Atlantic. Previously the notion of a sluggish deep ocean had prevailed, primarily through
the lack of direct current observations. Indeed, the
original plans for the expedition, by Swallow and
Stommel, envisaged the tracking of the newly
developed Swallow floats individually for up to a
year in the very local area.
Analytical studies of linear large-scale ocean
circulation problems (gyre circulation, westward
intensification, thermohaline circulation) had perhaps proceeded faster, uninhibited by observational knowledge of the pervasive eddy field.
In the 1960s, the community was gearing itself
up with the new instrumentation needed to explore
the picture tentatively being revealed of an eddypopulated deep ocean. Moored long-term current
meters were designed in Europe and North America.
Conductivity-Temperature-Depth (CTD) probes of
potentially high accuracy were also being tried at
sea. At the 1969 Joint Oceanographic Assembly
in Moscow, there was a prediction that we were
entering a decade of ‘automated unreliability’ as
31
OCEAN CIRCULATION AND CLIMATE
Copyright © 2001 Academic Press
ISBN 0-12-641351-7
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved
CHAPTER
1.3
The Origins, Development and
Conduct of WOCE
B. J.Thompson, J. Crease and John Gould
The late 1970s saw the end of a decade or more of
experimental and analytical studies of the eddy
field in limited parts of the deep ocean (Robinson,
1983). Numerical models, bounded by the power
of available computers, were probing in similarly
limited regions of the ocean basins. We were
excited about what was being learnt and could see
all manner of questions that needed to be addressed
about the physical processes. Satellite altimetry
was beginning to make an impact. There were
more than enough questions of importance to keep
us going in our traditional individualistic way,
interspersed with the occasional grand expedition.
However, there was a groundswell in the 1970s,
both within and outside the community, that we
should be paying more attention to the relevance
of our work to the world at large. (Smaller-scale
processes such as surface wave research had made
this transition much earlier, supported by an
already perceived practical need and by largely
classical fluid dynamics.) Though there were other
important strands of enquiry of practical interest,
a growing concern for the global impact of climate
change presented a remarkable opportunity for a
refocusing of large-scale research towards global
scientific problems.
In this chapter we attempt to describe in a personal, partial and informal way the evolution of a
great experiment that, through a haze of (necessary) acronyms and some bureaucracy, emerges
as it was started, as a sustained and we believe
successful joint endeavour by many laboratories
and individual scientists from many nations.
1.3.2 Large-scale oceanography in the
1960s and 1970s
At the start of the 1960s, the evidence for an
active dynamical deep ocean was just emerging
following the year-long observations made by the
Aries expedition in 1959–60 in a small area of the
western Atlantic. Previously the notion of a sluggish deep ocean had prevailed, primarily through
the lack of direct current observations. Indeed, the
original plans for the expedition, by Swallow and
Stommel, envisaged the tracking of the newly
developed Swallow floats individually for up to a
year in the very local area.
Analytical studies of linear large-scale ocean
circulation problems (gyre circulation, westward
intensification, thermohaline circulation) had perhaps proceeded faster, uninhibited by observational knowledge of the pervasive eddy field.
In the 1960s, the community was gearing itself
up with the new instrumentation needed to explore
the picture tentatively being revealed of an eddypopulated deep ocean. Moored long-term current
meters were designed in Europe and North America.
Conductivity-Temperature-Depth (CTD) probes of
potentially high accuracy were also being tried at
sea. At the 1969 Joint Oceanographic Assembly
in Moscow, there was a prediction that we were
entering a decade of ‘automated unreliability’ as
31
OCEAN CIRCULATION AND CLIMATE
Copyright © 2001 Academic Press
ISBN 0-12-641351-7
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved
CHAPTER
1.3
The Origins, Development and
Conduct of WOCE
B. J.Thompson, J. Crease and John Gould