new technologies replaced the tried-and-tested
traditional methods. There turned out to be some
truth in this, but confidence was building sufficiently for some in the community to embark on a
series of experiments in the 1970s, which eventually led to WOCE.
In 1970, Soviet scientists carried out POLYGON-70 (POLYGON meaning ‘Training Field’) in
the subtropical northeastern Atlantic using arrays of
moored current meters and CTDs. In 1971–74, the
Mid-Ocean Dynamics Experiment (MODE) was a
concerted attack on the dynamical description of
the full-depth open ocean at the mesoscale. MODE
(MODE Group, 1978) was an important stepping
stone scientifically, technically and managerially.
Scientifically, the MODE core experiment over
several months in spring 1973 concentrated on a
patch of the Atlantic. It was centred on 28°N
71°W, measured 4° on the side, and was partly
over rough and partly over smooth topography. It
was not far from the Aries site. The experimental
area was big enough that within the duration of
the experiment the velocity and density fields
could be intensively studied during the passage
and evolution of an eddy.
Technically, new observational tools were available. Deep-drifting neutrally buoyant SOFAR
(SOund Fixing And Ranging) floats, CTDs and
moored current meter arrays, while still subject
to frustrating failure, were matched in accuracy
to the nature and scale of the phenomenon. The
ships were fitted with the new, rapidly improving
Transit satellite navigation system. (Oceanographers have been, and continue to be, among the
leaders in exploiting the last iota of available accuracy from navigational systems.)
Managerially, MODE was a largely successful
experiment in giving the responsibility for detailed
planning to a scientific council of investigators
from the participating institutions. The International Geophysical Year (IGY) in 1957–58 had
been a major collaborative programme but had
not required the extraordinarily close working
relationship that developed on a day-to-day basis
between the participating laboratories. MODE,
US-led but with participation also from the UK,
was a foretaste of new ways of working. For the
first time modellers participated actively in a field
programme’s design and execution, and also studied the impact of equipment failure on the value of
the results. This dialogue between observers and
modellers, though sometimes fraught, has had a
lasting and beneficial impact on the way largescale oceanographic studies have developed.
Following MODE, a series of POLYMODE
experiments in the North Atlantic by US and Soviet
scientists established the pervasiveness, spatial
variability and probable importance of the eddy
field in the transfer of properties (Collins and
Heinmiller, 1989).
1.3.3 Ocean research and climate
The meteorological community, under International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) and
World Meteorological Organization (WMO) auspices, had established in 1966 the Global Atmospheric Research Programme (GARP) with two
basic objectives:
¥ to improve the predictability of weather out to
several weeks; and
¥ to understand better the physical basis of climate.
The first of these objectives dominated the planning and fieldwork in the 1970s. In consequence,
the meteorological interest in the ocean in the First
GARP Global Experiment (FGGE) was in large
part limited to the reporting of sea surface temperature and pressure, these being the parameters of
greatest importance for work on weather prediction. A positive outcome, which greatly influenced
later WOCE planning, was increased interest in
the use of drifting buoys as sensor platforms.
Drogues on the buoys slowed their wind-induced
drift and thus allowed, as an oceanographic bonus,
estimates to be made of surface currents. The
French EOLE satellite system was used in early
experiments and later drifters used in the Southern
Ocean during FGGE were the earliest large-scale
operational use of random access satellite telemetry and buoy location techniques through the
TIROS-n satellite. They provided essential surface
meteorological coverage in an otherwise datasparse region. The technique is now embodied in
the commercial ARGOS location and data transmission system used today. The use of the ARGOS
system with the profiling Autonomous Lagrangian
Circulation Explorer (P-ALACE) floats (Davis
and Zenk, Chapter 3.3) in the later years of
WOCE is transforming the ability of oceanographers to collect synoptic subsurface data on the
large scale.
SECTION 1 THE OCEAN AND CLIMATE
32
traditional methods. There turned out to be some
truth in this, but confidence was building sufficiently for some in the community to embark on a
series of experiments in the 1970s, which eventually led to WOCE.
In 1970, Soviet scientists carried out POLYGON-70 (POLYGON meaning ‘Training Field’) in
the subtropical northeastern Atlantic using arrays of
moored current meters and CTDs. In 1971–74, the
Mid-Ocean Dynamics Experiment (MODE) was a
concerted attack on the dynamical description of
the full-depth open ocean at the mesoscale. MODE
(MODE Group, 1978) was an important stepping
stone scientifically, technically and managerially.
Scientifically, the MODE core experiment over
several months in spring 1973 concentrated on a
patch of the Atlantic. It was centred on 28°N
71°W, measured 4° on the side, and was partly
over rough and partly over smooth topography. It
was not far from the Aries site. The experimental
area was big enough that within the duration of
the experiment the velocity and density fields
could be intensively studied during the passage
and evolution of an eddy.
Technically, new observational tools were available. Deep-drifting neutrally buoyant SOFAR
(SOund Fixing And Ranging) floats, CTDs and
moored current meter arrays, while still subject
to frustrating failure, were matched in accuracy
to the nature and scale of the phenomenon. The
ships were fitted with the new, rapidly improving
Transit satellite navigation system. (Oceanographers have been, and continue to be, among the
leaders in exploiting the last iota of available accuracy from navigational systems.)
Managerially, MODE was a largely successful
experiment in giving the responsibility for detailed
planning to a scientific council of investigators
from the participating institutions. The International Geophysical Year (IGY) in 1957–58 had
been a major collaborative programme but had
not required the extraordinarily close working
relationship that developed on a day-to-day basis
between the participating laboratories. MODE,
US-led but with participation also from the UK,
was a foretaste of new ways of working. For the
first time modellers participated actively in a field
programme’s design and execution, and also studied the impact of equipment failure on the value of
the results. This dialogue between observers and
modellers, though sometimes fraught, has had a
lasting and beneficial impact on the way largescale oceanographic studies have developed.
Following MODE, a series of POLYMODE
experiments in the North Atlantic by US and Soviet
scientists established the pervasiveness, spatial
variability and probable importance of the eddy
field in the transfer of properties (Collins and
Heinmiller, 1989).
1.3.3 Ocean research and climate
The meteorological community, under International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) and
World Meteorological Organization (WMO) auspices, had established in 1966 the Global Atmospheric Research Programme (GARP) with two
basic objectives:
¥ to improve the predictability of weather out to
several weeks; and
¥ to understand better the physical basis of climate.
The first of these objectives dominated the planning and fieldwork in the 1970s. In consequence,
the meteorological interest in the ocean in the First
GARP Global Experiment (FGGE) was in large
part limited to the reporting of sea surface temperature and pressure, these being the parameters of
greatest importance for work on weather prediction. A positive outcome, which greatly influenced
later WOCE planning, was increased interest in
the use of drifting buoys as sensor platforms.
Drogues on the buoys slowed their wind-induced
drift and thus allowed, as an oceanographic bonus,
estimates to be made of surface currents. The
French EOLE satellite system was used in early
experiments and later drifters used in the Southern
Ocean during FGGE were the earliest large-scale
operational use of random access satellite telemetry and buoy location techniques through the
TIROS-n satellite. They provided essential surface
meteorological coverage in an otherwise datasparse region. The technique is now embodied in
the commercial ARGOS location and data transmission system used today. The use of the ARGOS
system with the profiling Autonomous Lagrangian
Circulation Explorer (P-ALACE) floats (Davis
and Zenk, Chapter 3.3) in the later years of
WOCE is transforming the ability of oceanographers to collect synoptic subsurface data on the
large scale.
SECTION 1 THE OCEAN AND CLIMATE
32