62
Russ E. Davis
for WOCE work in the North Atlantic. Davis et al. (2001) describe both Profiling
ALACE and SOLO.
During WOCE, Michelle Ollitrault (IFREMER) and the group who first used
a reciprocating-pump buoyancy engine in the Hippocampus float adapted that idea
to build a multicycle RAFOS float called MARVOR. This design, first used in 1994,
overcame the limitation of the original RAFOS concept that data was available only at
the end of a float mission. MARVOR functions like a RAFOS float for a programmed
time, rises to the surface to relay data, and then repeats the cycle until exhausted. The
same design served as the basis for the autonomous profiling float PROVOR that is
today used in Argo.
WOCE planning involved an exhausting series of meetings and reports in which
the community tried to develop a coherent program. At a very early international
meeting, I proposed using floats to map mean velocity on a single intermediatedepth level as a reference for hydrographic geostrophic shears. It was a tremendous
concern that John Swallow questioned, in a gentle way, the utility of this: the widely
separated floats would move incoherently, giving no idea of the structures leading
to the statistical picture, and, cutting to the essence of Bretherton’s (1980) analysis,
variability could swamp the pattern of the general circulation. The float plan went
ahead and when the South Pacific results began coming out, it was with great gratitude
that I received Dr. Swallow’s approval in the form of unpublished data from the Indian
Ocean to use in planning that float array.
The various pre-WOCE developments contributed to the first directmeasurement descriptions of basin-scale circulation patterns. The Surface Velocity Program supported studies of variability, notably in the tropical Pacific; the mean
global surface circulation; and, in conjunction with wind and altimetry measurements,
the dynamics of the surface circulation (Niiler et al., 2003). Acoustically tracked and
autonomous profiling floats described intermediate-depth circulation in the subpolar
North Atlantic and the North Atlantic Current (Lavender et al., 2000; Bower et al.,
2002) and South Atlantic (Boebel et al., 1999; Nu˜ nez-Riboni et al., 2005) while autonomous floats defined the intermediate-depth circulation of the Indian Ocean and
South Pacific (Davis, 2005).
TODAY
Just as the WOCE float program was the direct inheritor of Swallow’s pioneering
work, so was the TOGA TAO Array the product of the effort begun by the WHOI
Buoy Group. Development by Stan Hayes, Mike McPhaden, and the staff of the
Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) of the TAO Array (see McPhaden
et al., 1998) is one of the success stories of ocean observing. TAO reports equatorial atmospheric forcing, upper-ocean temperature, and some samples of salinity and
currents in real time. Today TAO and its Japanese counterpart TRITON Array have
been defined to be “operational” which, in the United States, means that day-to-day
Russ E. Davis
for WOCE work in the North Atlantic. Davis et al. (2001) describe both Profiling
ALACE and SOLO.
During WOCE, Michelle Ollitrault (IFREMER) and the group who first used
a reciprocating-pump buoyancy engine in the Hippocampus float adapted that idea
to build a multicycle RAFOS float called MARVOR. This design, first used in 1994,
overcame the limitation of the original RAFOS concept that data was available only at
the end of a float mission. MARVOR functions like a RAFOS float for a programmed
time, rises to the surface to relay data, and then repeats the cycle until exhausted. The
same design served as the basis for the autonomous profiling float PROVOR that is
today used in Argo.
WOCE planning involved an exhausting series of meetings and reports in which
the community tried to develop a coherent program. At a very early international
meeting, I proposed using floats to map mean velocity on a single intermediatedepth level as a reference for hydrographic geostrophic shears. It was a tremendous
concern that John Swallow questioned, in a gentle way, the utility of this: the widely
separated floats would move incoherently, giving no idea of the structures leading
to the statistical picture, and, cutting to the essence of Bretherton’s (1980) analysis,
variability could swamp the pattern of the general circulation. The float plan went
ahead and when the South Pacific results began coming out, it was with great gratitude
that I received Dr. Swallow’s approval in the form of unpublished data from the Indian
Ocean to use in planning that float array.
The various pre-WOCE developments contributed to the first directmeasurement descriptions of basin-scale circulation patterns. The Surface Velocity Program supported studies of variability, notably in the tropical Pacific; the mean
global surface circulation; and, in conjunction with wind and altimetry measurements,
the dynamics of the surface circulation (Niiler et al., 2003). Acoustically tracked and
autonomous profiling floats described intermediate-depth circulation in the subpolar
North Atlantic and the North Atlantic Current (Lavender et al., 2000; Bower et al.,
2002) and South Atlantic (Boebel et al., 1999; Nu˜ nez-Riboni et al., 2005) while autonomous floats defined the intermediate-depth circulation of the Indian Ocean and
South Pacific (Davis, 2005).
TODAY
Just as the WOCE float program was the direct inheritor of Swallow’s pioneering
work, so was the TOGA TAO Array the product of the effort begun by the WHOI
Buoy Group. Development by Stan Hayes, Mike McPhaden, and the staff of the
Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) of the TAO Array (see McPhaden
et al., 1998) is one of the success stories of ocean observing. TAO reports equatorial atmospheric forcing, upper-ocean temperature, and some samples of salinity and
currents in real time. Today TAO and its Japanese counterpart TRITON Array have
been defined to be “operational” which, in the United States, means that day-to-day