accepted and welcomed by the originating Principal Investigators (PIs) as part of a peer review
process. For their part, PIs were asked to submit
their data within the unprecedentedly short period
of 2 years following the fieldwork. In some cases
even a 6-month period was suggested – unrealistic
perhaps at the time but now at the end of WOCE
and the beginning of new field programmes not at
all so. Such is the change of attitude that has been
fostered.
The validity of the system is supported by three
observations about the present situation:
¥ the unprecedented cooperation of scientists in
submitting the data;
¥ most DACs are still largely run by the same
scientists who established them; and
¥ the fact that the DACs have scrupulously safeguarded data submitted to them early while still
allowing their use by agreement with co-workers.
‘Data sharing’ of new data has now gained
widespread acceptability and hopefully will be the
norm in future experiments. One finds in the
WOCE bibliography, for example, no evidence of
the plagiarism that some feared might result from
early submissions of data to the DACs. The
WOCE data system is described more fully by
Lindstrom and Legler (Chapter 3.5).
There is a strong tendency in such a system for
each component to go its own way so, in addition
to the DACs, a Data Information Unit (DIU) was
formed. Its function was to provide a single summary source on the progress of the experiment, the
data and products available at the DACs, agreed
standards and procedures, a bibliography, and
generally to facilitate communications in WOCE.
The system adapted well to the changing technology. Electronic mail was used from the very earliest planning phase of WOCE and indeed, it is hard
to see how the planning process could have progressed so rapidly without it. By early 1994 the
DIU was one of the first few hundred sites offering
a world wide web connection, with the DACs
following shortly after. The DIU’s functions, too,
have changed significantly from being an online
source of the national and international plans for
the experiment, to being a summary source for the
progress of the experiment and for links to the
data sets and DACs, and now support of the final
phase of the experiment.
1.3.5 Implementation and oversight
The prospect of truly global oceanography was
exciting and in consequence entrained the collaboration of a large proportion of scientists engaged
in deep sea physical oceanography. Although the
planning was carried out during the economic
boom-years of the late 1980s, the start of WOCE
observations in 1990 coincided with a global
economic downturn followed shortly by the dissolution of the Soviet Union. This led to the curtailment of many of the repeated hydrographic
sections. The first official WOCE cruise in January
1990 was the occupation of a section across the
Drake Passage on F.S. Meteor.
As is often the case with satellites, the launch
dates of the two that would provide the altimeter
and scatterometer coverage required by WOCE
slipped from their original dates. TOPEX/POSEIDON was launched in August 1992 (and remarkably continues 8 years later to provide excellent
data well beyond its design life; Fu, Chapter 3.3).
ERS-1 had been launched in July 1991 on a more
general-purpose earth observation mission that
included altimetry and scatterometry. ERS-1 has
now been succeeded (in 1995) by an almost
identical ERS-2.
The delay in satellite launches meant that the
5-year observational phase starting in 1990 would
not allow a full 5 years of coincident high-precision satellite altimeter coverage. The SSG at its
15th meeting in Toulouse in October 1990 therefore agreed to ‘extend the Global Survey over the
period 1990–1997 (but no longer)’. In fact some
WOCE hydrography continued into 1998.
A key new element in the WOCE observational
strategy was the Autonomous Lagrangian Circulation Explorer (ALACE) float programme. The first
significant deployment of ten floats was made in
the Drake Passage on Meteor’s 1990 cruise. It was
only as these floats progressed on their 2-week
cycle that we learned about their performance and
survival rates and found that they would indeed
provide the global coverage WOCE required.
These floats are described by Davis and Zenk
(Chapter 3.2).
Through the observational phase, the WOCE
IPO and the DIU played a key role in monitoring progress and highlighting potential problems. The International Planning Office provided
1.3 The Origins, Development and Conduct of WOCE
41
Thompson, Crease and Gould
process. For their part, PIs were asked to submit
their data within the unprecedentedly short period
of 2 years following the fieldwork. In some cases
even a 6-month period was suggested – unrealistic
perhaps at the time but now at the end of WOCE
and the beginning of new field programmes not at
all so. Such is the change of attitude that has been
fostered.
The validity of the system is supported by three
observations about the present situation:
¥ the unprecedented cooperation of scientists in
submitting the data;
¥ most DACs are still largely run by the same
scientists who established them; and
¥ the fact that the DACs have scrupulously safeguarded data submitted to them early while still
allowing their use by agreement with co-workers.
‘Data sharing’ of new data has now gained
widespread acceptability and hopefully will be the
norm in future experiments. One finds in the
WOCE bibliography, for example, no evidence of
the plagiarism that some feared might result from
early submissions of data to the DACs. The
WOCE data system is described more fully by
Lindstrom and Legler (Chapter 3.5).
There is a strong tendency in such a system for
each component to go its own way so, in addition
to the DACs, a Data Information Unit (DIU) was
formed. Its function was to provide a single summary source on the progress of the experiment, the
data and products available at the DACs, agreed
standards and procedures, a bibliography, and
generally to facilitate communications in WOCE.
The system adapted well to the changing technology. Electronic mail was used from the very earliest planning phase of WOCE and indeed, it is hard
to see how the planning process could have progressed so rapidly without it. By early 1994 the
DIU was one of the first few hundred sites offering
a world wide web connection, with the DACs
following shortly after. The DIU’s functions, too,
have changed significantly from being an online
source of the national and international plans for
the experiment, to being a summary source for the
progress of the experiment and for links to the
data sets and DACs, and now support of the final
phase of the experiment.
1.3.5 Implementation and oversight
The prospect of truly global oceanography was
exciting and in consequence entrained the collaboration of a large proportion of scientists engaged
in deep sea physical oceanography. Although the
planning was carried out during the economic
boom-years of the late 1980s, the start of WOCE
observations in 1990 coincided with a global
economic downturn followed shortly by the dissolution of the Soviet Union. This led to the curtailment of many of the repeated hydrographic
sections. The first official WOCE cruise in January
1990 was the occupation of a section across the
Drake Passage on F.S. Meteor.
As is often the case with satellites, the launch
dates of the two that would provide the altimeter
and scatterometer coverage required by WOCE
slipped from their original dates. TOPEX/POSEIDON was launched in August 1992 (and remarkably continues 8 years later to provide excellent
data well beyond its design life; Fu, Chapter 3.3).
ERS-1 had been launched in July 1991 on a more
general-purpose earth observation mission that
included altimetry and scatterometry. ERS-1 has
now been succeeded (in 1995) by an almost
identical ERS-2.
The delay in satellite launches meant that the
5-year observational phase starting in 1990 would
not allow a full 5 years of coincident high-precision satellite altimeter coverage. The SSG at its
15th meeting in Toulouse in October 1990 therefore agreed to ‘extend the Global Survey over the
period 1990–1997 (but no longer)’. In fact some
WOCE hydrography continued into 1998.
A key new element in the WOCE observational
strategy was the Autonomous Lagrangian Circulation Explorer (ALACE) float programme. The first
significant deployment of ten floats was made in
the Drake Passage on Meteor’s 1990 cruise. It was
only as these floats progressed on their 2-week
cycle that we learned about their performance and
survival rates and found that they would indeed
provide the global coverage WOCE required.
These floats are described by Davis and Zenk
(Chapter 3.2).
Through the observational phase, the WOCE
IPO and the DIU played a key role in monitoring progress and highlighting potential problems. The International Planning Office provided
1.3 The Origins, Development and Conduct of WOCE
41
Thompson, Crease and Gould