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Satellites - Global measurements of ocean surface topography, surface winds, and sea surface temperature from the ERS-1, TOPEX/POSEIDON, and ADEOS satellites.
Hydrography - The largest single sea-going WOCE activity, the hydrographic program, is conducting a global survey to measure the distributions of density, temperature, salinity, and chemical tracers. Some observations are repeated regularly to determine temporal change. Measurements of water samples, supported by observations from other components, will illuminate the sources and patterns of movement of the ocean's water masses, along with their renewal time scales.
Moored Measurements - Moorings with current meters that can be left unattended for up to two years will help describe water movements at locations essential to meeting the following goals: describing the general circulation in the ocean; determining the strength and variability of oceanic currents, particularly in boundary flows; and measuring the strength and spatial structure of the eddy field.
Subsurface Floats - The WOCE float program seeks to track and map the global flow of ocean currents at a depth of approximately 1000 m. Data from the floats, which will drift for thousands of miles beneath the oceans, will establish a statistical representation of the current field at that depth and provide a reference for calculating the velocity of ocean currents at other depths using hydrographic measurements.
Surface Drifters - WOCE envisions a worldwide deployment of several thousand drifters to provide a global surface data set of sea surface temperature, velocity, and atmospheric pressure.
Sea Level Measurements - Sea level measurements will serve WOCE goals by providing in situ observations needed to constrain/correct satellite altimeter measurements, by directly monitoring geostrophic currents, and by providing a long-term global data set against which to help assess the representativeness of the WOCE data set.
Voluntary Observing Ships - Merchant vessels that voluntarily operate oceanographic instruments remain the only practical means of gaining repeated access to the global ocean. These ships have the capability of making vertical profiling measurements of temperature, salinity, and velocity through the upper 400 to 1000 m of the ocean along regularly repeated tracks.
Process Studies - U.S. WOCE is contributing to three field studies focused in the Atlantic. The expectation is that these intensive studies should lead to major advances in basin-scale numerical models that can be applied to models of the global ocean. The Subduction Experiment, focused in the North Atlantic, is a study of the dynamics of wind forcing of surface layers and the movement of surface waters beneath adjacent waters in a process known as subduction. Researchers participating in the Tracer Release Experiment are studying the mixing of thermocline waters in the same area of the North Atlantic. The Deep Basin Experiment is studying deep circulation in the Brazil Basin of the South Atlantic.
Ocean Circulation Modeling - Both computing power and ocean data limit today's ocean circulation models. However, as WOCE data come in model physics improves, and power increases, models will become the primary tools for synthesizing and understanding global observations and eventually for designing global observing systems.
Data Management - Because of the volume and diversity of data collected during the experiment, WOCE has implemented a series of data assembly centers to handle data assembly, quality control and distribution. WOCE special analysis centers have been established or are being planned to handle data analysis and synthesis functions, specifically producing gridded global data sets for use by modelers. Centers in the U.S. handle data from the hydrographic program, floats, sea level, current meters, surface drifters, and the upper ocean thermal data from the Atlantic. Additionally, the Special Analysis Center for Surface Wind/Wind Stress and Derived Air-Sea Flux Fields produces monthly pseudo-stress vectors and sensible latent heat flux estimates complete with error estimates, using primarily North Atlantic data.
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