Reflections of an Equatorial Oceanographer
105
off New England to measure the Gulf Stream, the profiler that Luyten and Swallow used in the Indian Ocean in the mid-1970s to first describe equatorial deep jets,
and the profiling work that Eric Firing did across the equatorial undercurrent south
of Fanning Island during PEQUOD in 1982–1983. The development of the instruments that enable us to learn how the ocean works has been accomplished through
a gradual evolution that has depended on significant engineering efforts to bring
new technology to bear on the problem of making accurate in situ measurements.
Without the in situ measurement capability everything else that we do would be for
naught.
I got to Nova in the fall of 1968 and worked closely with Peter Niiler. He
had visited me briefly while I was at Scripps and suggested that we look at the Jule
Charney model for an inertial Gulf Stream to see if we could extend it beyond the
separation latitude. We started in on this problem when I got to Nova and pursued it at
the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) during the summer of 1969.
Elliott Schulman and Jim O’Brien were there, and Elliott had arranged for a number
of oceanographers to visit and lecture that summer. Adrian Gill and Allan Robinson
were among them, and Henry Stommel was supposed to come, but had to bow out
due to a broken rib. We watched the first landing on the moon with a large group
in Jim O’Brien’s living room. Jim and I sat in the back, playing cards. The game is
called Klabberjass, or Klob.
In June 1970 I attended the Congress on Applied Mechanics in Cambridge.
Bill Richardson asked me to represent Nova at a meeting that Allan Robinson was
convening to discuss a program to study the role of eddies in the deep ocean circulation.
I conveyed Richardson’s interest in taking part in the program, with a view toward
making current measurements from aircraft. I did not think much more about this
until the following May, when I got a call at Nova from Henry Stommel and Allan
Robinson, who asked if I would consider coming back to Cambridge for 2 years
to work at MIT as the Executive Officer for the Mid-Ocean Dynamics Experiment
(MODE). This was the program to study the role of eddies in the ocean circulation, and
was jointly funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and ONR as part of the
International Decade of Ocean Exploration (IDOE). Stommel and Robinson were the
cochairmen of the MODE program. I visited the program managers in Washington,
D.C. (Worth Nowlin at NSF and Denny Kirwan at ONR), and then told Stommel
and Robinson I would do it. Bill Richardson was not too happy about this, as he was
worried about the impact on my research. He eventually wrote a play on the subject,
called “Mid-Ocean Madness, or I’m in the MODE for Love.” I never knew for sure
why Stommel and Robinson asked me to take on this job. Robinson told me that he
and Hank were in his office, and Allan was looking at the collection of Ph.D. theses
that he had supervised. Apparently he thought I might be able to do it.
Robinson was due to be on sabbatical in England and India that year, so we
agreed to put the MODE office at MIT next to Henry Stommel in the Green Building.
Norm Phillips was the department chairman and Jule Charney was just down the
hall. Carl Wunsch was one floor down. The MODE program involved 20 principal
105
off New England to measure the Gulf Stream, the profiler that Luyten and Swallow used in the Indian Ocean in the mid-1970s to first describe equatorial deep jets,
and the profiling work that Eric Firing did across the equatorial undercurrent south
of Fanning Island during PEQUOD in 1982–1983. The development of the instruments that enable us to learn how the ocean works has been accomplished through
a gradual evolution that has depended on significant engineering efforts to bring
new technology to bear on the problem of making accurate in situ measurements.
Without the in situ measurement capability everything else that we do would be for
naught.
I got to Nova in the fall of 1968 and worked closely with Peter Niiler. He
had visited me briefly while I was at Scripps and suggested that we look at the Jule
Charney model for an inertial Gulf Stream to see if we could extend it beyond the
separation latitude. We started in on this problem when I got to Nova and pursued it at
the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) during the summer of 1969.
Elliott Schulman and Jim O’Brien were there, and Elliott had arranged for a number
of oceanographers to visit and lecture that summer. Adrian Gill and Allan Robinson
were among them, and Henry Stommel was supposed to come, but had to bow out
due to a broken rib. We watched the first landing on the moon with a large group
in Jim O’Brien’s living room. Jim and I sat in the back, playing cards. The game is
called Klabberjass, or Klob.
In June 1970 I attended the Congress on Applied Mechanics in Cambridge.
Bill Richardson asked me to represent Nova at a meeting that Allan Robinson was
convening to discuss a program to study the role of eddies in the deep ocean circulation.
I conveyed Richardson’s interest in taking part in the program, with a view toward
making current measurements from aircraft. I did not think much more about this
until the following May, when I got a call at Nova from Henry Stommel and Allan
Robinson, who asked if I would consider coming back to Cambridge for 2 years
to work at MIT as the Executive Officer for the Mid-Ocean Dynamics Experiment
(MODE). This was the program to study the role of eddies in the ocean circulation, and
was jointly funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and ONR as part of the
International Decade of Ocean Exploration (IDOE). Stommel and Robinson were the
cochairmen of the MODE program. I visited the program managers in Washington,
D.C. (Worth Nowlin at NSF and Denny Kirwan at ONR), and then told Stommel
and Robinson I would do it. Bill Richardson was not too happy about this, as he was
worried about the impact on my research. He eventually wrote a play on the subject,
called “Mid-Ocean Madness, or I’m in the MODE for Love.” I never knew for sure
why Stommel and Robinson asked me to take on this job. Robinson told me that he
and Hank were in his office, and Allan was looking at the collection of Ph.D. theses
that he had supervised. Apparently he thought I might be able to do it.
Robinson was due to be on sabbatical in England and India that year, so we
agreed to put the MODE office at MIT next to Henry Stommel in the Green Building.
Norm Phillips was the department chairman and Jule Charney was just down the
hall. Carl Wunsch was one floor down. The MODE program involved 20 principal