Reflections of an Equatorial Oceanographer
115
a month-long program on Equatorial Dynamics at the University of Rhode Island
(URI), specifically to help train the biogeochemists. Jay McCreary, Jim O’Brien,
Lew Rothstein, and I formed the core faculty for the workshop. Mike McPhaden
was there the first and last week, and a number of other lecturers came for a few
days at a time. There were about 20 students. We all lived together in three or four
rental houses, and shared cooking and housekeeping responsibilities. Jim O’Brien and
Lew Rothstein set up a computer visualization laboratory for the workshop, using a
number of Silicon Graphics workstations. So the students were not only learning
about equatorial theory, they were also running time-dependent computer models to
visualize what they were studying. At the end of the workshop we had a 2-day meeting
of the Equatorial Theoretical Panel at the URI Whispering Pines Conference Center
on the W. Alton Jones campus. Henry Stommel came to the meeting and I clearly
remember an early morning discussion with him the second day. He brought me a
goose quill he had picked up on the grounds, and suggested I could use it to write
with. I think that was the last time I saw him.
Sometime late in 1991 I got a call from Chris Mooers asking if I would be
interested in being an editor of the Journal of Physical Oceanography (JPO). I spoke
with Peter Gent and Eli Katz about it, and said I would be willing to give it a try. I
quickly joined the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and sent my CV to the
publications committee. I became an editor in early 1992 and continued until late
1995. Editing an AMS journal provided a nice balance to my UH responsibilities as
JIMAR Director.
In 1994 Bruce Taft announced that he would retire the following year, and
when his job as Leader of the Ocean Climate Research Division at NOAA’s Pacific
Marine Environmental Laboratory was advertised, I applied. I was offered the job and
moved to Seattle in 1995. It has been exciting to work closely with a diverse group of
scientists who make in situ observations relating to the role of the ocean in climate. I
have now been here 10 years and have no plan to retire. I enjoy my job. Lots of things
have changed in NOAA over the decade. Because of my 17 years directing JIMAR
in Hawaii, I still pay close attention to the operation of the NOAA joint institutes,
especially JIMAR and the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Oceans
(JISAO). My impression is that the joint institutes have been an excellent mechanism
to promote cooperation between NOAA and the universities, and have been the locus
of lots of outstanding research over the last 40 years. But I don’t think directing a
joint institute is as much fun as it used to be.
What lessons can we learn from all of this? The first one is that in situ measurements are essential for understanding how the system works. Remote sensing, theory,
and numerical modeling are all important, but in situ observations using the best
available instruments are the sine qua non of understanding the ocean. This requires
continual investment in new sensor and instrument development, incorporating stateof-the-art technology, to enable scientists to continue to advance their knowledge.
This need to keep investing in new measurement techniques was considered obvious
in the early 1970s, and was built in to IDOE programs like MODE. It is no longer as
115
a month-long program on Equatorial Dynamics at the University of Rhode Island
(URI), specifically to help train the biogeochemists. Jay McCreary, Jim O’Brien,
Lew Rothstein, and I formed the core faculty for the workshop. Mike McPhaden
was there the first and last week, and a number of other lecturers came for a few
days at a time. There were about 20 students. We all lived together in three or four
rental houses, and shared cooking and housekeeping responsibilities. Jim O’Brien and
Lew Rothstein set up a computer visualization laboratory for the workshop, using a
number of Silicon Graphics workstations. So the students were not only learning
about equatorial theory, they were also running time-dependent computer models to
visualize what they were studying. At the end of the workshop we had a 2-day meeting
of the Equatorial Theoretical Panel at the URI Whispering Pines Conference Center
on the W. Alton Jones campus. Henry Stommel came to the meeting and I clearly
remember an early morning discussion with him the second day. He brought me a
goose quill he had picked up on the grounds, and suggested I could use it to write
with. I think that was the last time I saw him.
Sometime late in 1991 I got a call from Chris Mooers asking if I would be
interested in being an editor of the Journal of Physical Oceanography (JPO). I spoke
with Peter Gent and Eli Katz about it, and said I would be willing to give it a try. I
quickly joined the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and sent my CV to the
publications committee. I became an editor in early 1992 and continued until late
1995. Editing an AMS journal provided a nice balance to my UH responsibilities as
JIMAR Director.
In 1994 Bruce Taft announced that he would retire the following year, and
when his job as Leader of the Ocean Climate Research Division at NOAA’s Pacific
Marine Environmental Laboratory was advertised, I applied. I was offered the job and
moved to Seattle in 1995. It has been exciting to work closely with a diverse group of
scientists who make in situ observations relating to the role of the ocean in climate. I
have now been here 10 years and have no plan to retire. I enjoy my job. Lots of things
have changed in NOAA over the decade. Because of my 17 years directing JIMAR
in Hawaii, I still pay close attention to the operation of the NOAA joint institutes,
especially JIMAR and the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Oceans
(JISAO). My impression is that the joint institutes have been an excellent mechanism
to promote cooperation between NOAA and the universities, and have been the locus
of lots of outstanding research over the last 40 years. But I don’t think directing a
joint institute is as much fun as it used to be.
What lessons can we learn from all of this? The first one is that in situ measurements are essential for understanding how the system works. Remote sensing, theory,
and numerical modeling are all important, but in situ observations using the best
available instruments are the sine qua non of understanding the ocean. This requires
continual investment in new sensor and instrument development, incorporating stateof-the-art technology, to enable scientists to continue to advance their knowledge.
This need to keep investing in new measurement techniques was considered obvious
in the early 1970s, and was built in to IDOE programs like MODE. It is no longer as