Abstract
The international oceanographic community is preparing for an ambitious five-year experiment. Starting in 1990, it will provide the first comprehensive global survey of physical properties of the oceans. The resulting data set will be used to test computer models of the ocean circulation needed for predicting decadal climate change. The results will also benefit research in marine chemistry, biology and geology. This review looks at the climatalogicalproblems that motivated the project and discusses new observing techniques, from space and in situ, which make it timely to embark on this major step in physical exploration of the ocean.
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Woods, J. The World Ocean Circulation Experiment. Nature 314, 501–511 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1038/314501a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/314501a0
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