110
Dennis Wilson Moore
and eventually Director. Within a few months things began to settle down, and we got
back to our research.
In May 1975 the INDEX Theoretical Panel held its first meeting. There were
a dozen participants. There were not many people doing equatorial theory in those
days, so the panel served as a training ground for young theoreticians. By the next
year, there were plans underway for equatorial oceanography during FGGE in all
three oceans, under the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) Working
Group (WG) 47, chaired by Stommel. He set up a panel for each ocean, chaired by
Taft for the Pacific, Hisard for the Atlantic, and Swallow for the Indian Ocean. I had
already entrained all the theoreticians to work on the Indian Ocean, so Taft and Hisard
wrote and asked me to expand the scope of the panel to include the other two oceans.
Thus, the INDEX Theoretical Panel became the Equatorial Theoretical Panel.
In December 1975 I attended a SCOR WG 47 Pacific Panel Meeting in Hawaii,
at the Kuilima Resort on the north shore of Oahu. This was my first visit to Hawaii
and I was fascinated with the place. Bruce Taft chaired the meeting. Klaus Wyrtki and
Colin Ramage took care of the local arrangements. They put us in an out-of-the-way
place with few distractions. I met a student from Scripps named Julian (Jay) McCreary,
who was working on a thesis with Myrl Henderschott. It was a linear equatorial wave
model for El Ni˜ no, and he was having trouble convincing his committee that he had
solved the problem correctly. I went back to Florida after this meeting and wrote a
letter to Russ Davis and Myrl, trying to convince them that Jay was doing good work.
In the spring of 1976 there was a UNESCO meeting in Nairobi on Cooperative
Investigations of the North and Central Western Indian Ocean (CINCWIO). John
Swallow, Henry Stommel, Walter Duing, Fritz Schott, and I were all there, along with
many others. One of the participants was Mr. J. Findlater, who had discovered and
described the low-level atmospheric jet trapped against the east African highlands
during the Southwest monsoon. This is basically a western boundary current in the
atmosphere, supported by a mountain range. In subsequent documents about INDEX
we emphasized that it was timely as a contribution to CINCWIO. Later that spring
Luyten and Swallow were at sea in the Indian Ocean and discovered the equatorial
deep jets, which they referred to as “Equatorial Undercurrents.” Carl Wunsch was
with them, and produced a theory that turned out to be unsatisfactory. It is interesting
to note that it is nearly 30 years later and there is still no satisfactory theory for these
deep jets (see Luyten and Swallow, 1976, and Wunsch, 1977).
In the summer of 1977 we held the FGGE, INDEX, NORPAX, Equatorial
(FINE) Workshop at Scripps, to complete preparations for the equatorial oceanography to be carried out in FGGE. This workshop began with 100 participants for
the first week, with lectures by myself, Carl Wunsch, John Boyd, George Philander,
Walter Duing, David Anderson, Julian McCreary, John Allen, and Ed Sarachik. The
second week continued with about 24 participants, and a series of lectures by John
Boyd. The afternoons were reserved for general scientific discussion. For the next 4
weeks a dozen participants stayed on and worked together on a variety of problems.
This included myself and Jan Witte from Nova, Jim O’Brien and David Adamec from
Dennis Wilson Moore
and eventually Director. Within a few months things began to settle down, and we got
back to our research.
In May 1975 the INDEX Theoretical Panel held its first meeting. There were
a dozen participants. There were not many people doing equatorial theory in those
days, so the panel served as a training ground for young theoreticians. By the next
year, there were plans underway for equatorial oceanography during FGGE in all
three oceans, under the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) Working
Group (WG) 47, chaired by Stommel. He set up a panel for each ocean, chaired by
Taft for the Pacific, Hisard for the Atlantic, and Swallow for the Indian Ocean. I had
already entrained all the theoreticians to work on the Indian Ocean, so Taft and Hisard
wrote and asked me to expand the scope of the panel to include the other two oceans.
Thus, the INDEX Theoretical Panel became the Equatorial Theoretical Panel.
In December 1975 I attended a SCOR WG 47 Pacific Panel Meeting in Hawaii,
at the Kuilima Resort on the north shore of Oahu. This was my first visit to Hawaii
and I was fascinated with the place. Bruce Taft chaired the meeting. Klaus Wyrtki and
Colin Ramage took care of the local arrangements. They put us in an out-of-the-way
place with few distractions. I met a student from Scripps named Julian (Jay) McCreary,
who was working on a thesis with Myrl Henderschott. It was a linear equatorial wave
model for El Ni˜ no, and he was having trouble convincing his committee that he had
solved the problem correctly. I went back to Florida after this meeting and wrote a
letter to Russ Davis and Myrl, trying to convince them that Jay was doing good work.
In the spring of 1976 there was a UNESCO meeting in Nairobi on Cooperative
Investigations of the North and Central Western Indian Ocean (CINCWIO). John
Swallow, Henry Stommel, Walter Duing, Fritz Schott, and I were all there, along with
many others. One of the participants was Mr. J. Findlater, who had discovered and
described the low-level atmospheric jet trapped against the east African highlands
during the Southwest monsoon. This is basically a western boundary current in the
atmosphere, supported by a mountain range. In subsequent documents about INDEX
we emphasized that it was timely as a contribution to CINCWIO. Later that spring
Luyten and Swallow were at sea in the Indian Ocean and discovered the equatorial
deep jets, which they referred to as “Equatorial Undercurrents.” Carl Wunsch was
with them, and produced a theory that turned out to be unsatisfactory. It is interesting
to note that it is nearly 30 years later and there is still no satisfactory theory for these
deep jets (see Luyten and Swallow, 1976, and Wunsch, 1977).
In the summer of 1977 we held the FGGE, INDEX, NORPAX, Equatorial
(FINE) Workshop at Scripps, to complete preparations for the equatorial oceanography to be carried out in FGGE. This workshop began with 100 participants for
the first week, with lectures by myself, Carl Wunsch, John Boyd, George Philander,
Walter Duing, David Anderson, Julian McCreary, John Allen, and Ed Sarachik. The
second week continued with about 24 participants, and a series of lectures by John
Boyd. The afternoons were reserved for general scientific discussion. For the next 4
weeks a dozen participants stayed on and worked together on a variety of problems.
This included myself and Jan Witte from Nova, Jim O’Brien and David Adamec from