60
Russ E. Davis
Figure 4.5. A modern RAFOS float with its developer Tom Rossby.
enough that in 1988 NSF supported further development and initial deployment of
ten floats in the Southern Ocean at 750 m depth. Considering the many failure modes
yet to be discovered, it was lucky that cycling every 15 days, four floats survived for
2 years and two traveled 110 degrees of longitude. This justified going ahead with
WOCE plans to use ALACEs on the basin scales, but it also began a long battle for
reliability, one that, much like the Buoy Group’s early war against Murphy’s Law,
focused on myriad critical details. Because WOCE hydrographers generously agreed
to deploy floats along the sections of the WOCE Hydrographic Survey, the cost of
a measurement-year was basically the ALACE cost (about $10,000) divided by the
years of service. With battery energy for 5 years, float reliability was the key to
accurately describing the circulation. It was at this point that differences between the
motives of Webb and Scripps began to grow. Webb was interested in innovation: the
thermal powered float Claude; the bobber SOFAR float used successfully by Price
(1996); and following up on Stommel’s (1989) idea of the underwater glider Slocum.
Scripps, particularly Jim Dufour and Jeff Sherman, invested effort in eliminating
Russ E. Davis
Figure 4.5. A modern RAFOS float with its developer Tom Rossby.
enough that in 1988 NSF supported further development and initial deployment of
ten floats in the Southern Ocean at 750 m depth. Considering the many failure modes
yet to be discovered, it was lucky that cycling every 15 days, four floats survived for
2 years and two traveled 110 degrees of longitude. This justified going ahead with
WOCE plans to use ALACEs on the basin scales, but it also began a long battle for
reliability, one that, much like the Buoy Group’s early war against Murphy’s Law,
focused on myriad critical details. Because WOCE hydrographers generously agreed
to deploy floats along the sections of the WOCE Hydrographic Survey, the cost of
a measurement-year was basically the ALACE cost (about $10,000) divided by the
years of service. With battery energy for 5 years, float reliability was the key to
accurately describing the circulation. It was at this point that differences between the
motives of Webb and Scripps began to grow. Webb was interested in innovation: the
thermal powered float Claude; the bobber SOFAR float used successfully by Price
(1996); and following up on Stommel’s (1989) idea of the underwater glider Slocum.
Scripps, particularly Jim Dufour and Jeff Sherman, invested effort in eliminating