Contributions to Global Ocean Observations
63
maintenance and improvement of TAO will be transferred from PMEL to an operational group. It will be an interesting experiment to see how well TAO evolves and
maintains quality as it provides data for predicting ENSO after the scientists who
motivated and built the array are removed from its operation.
In a complementary way, Dean Roemmich and John Gould led conversion of the
WOCE autonomous float program into the internationally coordinated Argo program
that today is two-thirds of the way toward its goal of maintaining an array of 3000
floats profiling salinity and temperature over the upper 2 km of the ice-free oceans.
Because float operations are very different from mooring work, the structure of Argo
is quite different from that of TAO/TRITON. Small groups in many nations (five
in the United States) prepare and deploy floats with approved specifications while
national centers and an international office see to the free distribution of the data. A
loose organization assures that deployment plans are coordinated and that the array
is maintained with approximately uniform coverage.
As the ocean observing system grows and becomes more operational, it will
involve people who are not familiar with how ocean observations have evolved. It
seems important to extract from history those lessons that will pertain to the more
complex and operational observational systems we are moving toward. Above all, it
seems certain that ocean observations will not soon become routine in the sense that
people can be trained to sustain them without inventing solutions to new problems or
improving measurement technology. Dedication, creativity, and skill were needed to
achieve the progress of the last 50 years and these talents will be equally needed in
the next 50 years.
While other areas like engineering, information sciences, and biology will produce new ideas and methods that can help ocean observations, the step of adapting
them to the ocean will require special ocean expertise and creativity. Judging from
history, there is a list of critical ingredients for successful technical development,
including what will be needed to keep operational observing systems modern and
efficient: time and monetary support; a degree of creative freedom and personal
reward; good judgment; and a critical mass.
While Swallow created the first floats in less than a year, he continued to improve
them for years. The Buoy Group took two decades to move from concept to operations.
Autonomous floats were 8 years to the first serious deployment and 15 until the major
bugs were worked out. Technologists will need time and a long cycle of testing and
redesign to improve or even maintain the ocean observing system. Substantial funding
will be needed to provide the required time.
No real progress is made in engineering or science without smart people being
given the freedom to think in new and different ways, many of which will fail. The last
50 years were in this sense a golden age in oceanography. In research institutions and
the small businesses that worked with them, individuals were motivated by various
perceived personal rewards to try things and devise new methods. At first sight, it
appears that the freedom and individual rewards that fuel creativity will be hard to
sustain inside an increasingly operational observing system. This may be true, in
63
maintenance and improvement of TAO will be transferred from PMEL to an operational group. It will be an interesting experiment to see how well TAO evolves and
maintains quality as it provides data for predicting ENSO after the scientists who
motivated and built the array are removed from its operation.
In a complementary way, Dean Roemmich and John Gould led conversion of the
WOCE autonomous float program into the internationally coordinated Argo program
that today is two-thirds of the way toward its goal of maintaining an array of 3000
floats profiling salinity and temperature over the upper 2 km of the ice-free oceans.
Because float operations are very different from mooring work, the structure of Argo
is quite different from that of TAO/TRITON. Small groups in many nations (five
in the United States) prepare and deploy floats with approved specifications while
national centers and an international office see to the free distribution of the data. A
loose organization assures that deployment plans are coordinated and that the array
is maintained with approximately uniform coverage.
As the ocean observing system grows and becomes more operational, it will
involve people who are not familiar with how ocean observations have evolved. It
seems important to extract from history those lessons that will pertain to the more
complex and operational observational systems we are moving toward. Above all, it
seems certain that ocean observations will not soon become routine in the sense that
people can be trained to sustain them without inventing solutions to new problems or
improving measurement technology. Dedication, creativity, and skill were needed to
achieve the progress of the last 50 years and these talents will be equally needed in
the next 50 years.
While other areas like engineering, information sciences, and biology will produce new ideas and methods that can help ocean observations, the step of adapting
them to the ocean will require special ocean expertise and creativity. Judging from
history, there is a list of critical ingredients for successful technical development,
including what will be needed to keep operational observing systems modern and
efficient: time and monetary support; a degree of creative freedom and personal
reward; good judgment; and a critical mass.
While Swallow created the first floats in less than a year, he continued to improve
them for years. The Buoy Group took two decades to move from concept to operations.
Autonomous floats were 8 years to the first serious deployment and 15 until the major
bugs were worked out. Technologists will need time and a long cycle of testing and
redesign to improve or even maintain the ocean observing system. Substantial funding
will be needed to provide the required time.
No real progress is made in engineering or science without smart people being
given the freedom to think in new and different ways, many of which will fail. The last
50 years were in this sense a golden age in oceanography. In research institutions and
the small businesses that worked with them, individuals were motivated by various
perceived personal rewards to try things and devise new methods. At first sight, it
appears that the freedom and individual rewards that fuel creativity will be hard to
sustain inside an increasingly operational observing system. This may be true, in