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World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) Description 
The World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) was a component of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) designed to investigate the ocean's role in decadal climate change. NSF, NASA, NOAA, the Office of Naval Research (ONR), and DOE supported U.S. participation in WOCE. Scientists from more than 30 countries collaborated during the WOCE field program to sample the ocean on a global scale with the aim of describing its large-scale circulation patterns, its effect on gas storage, and how it interacts with the atmosphere. As the data are collected and archived, they are being used to construct improved models of ocean circulation and the combined ocean-atmosphere system that should improve global climate forecasts. In November 2002, the final international WOCE Science Conference brought scientists from around the world to San Antonio to discuss the scientific achievements of the program and recognize the contribution of many individuals, some of them no longer with us. A set of two DVD discs containing not only the data collected during WOCE but also documentation of its planning were distributed at the meeting and is available through NODC (http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/woce_v3/).
In 2004, as its final activity, the WOCE program will publish a series of four atlases, concentrating respectively on the hydrography of the Pacific, Indian, Atlantic and Southern Oceans. The Southern Ocean is given a separate volume because of the importance of the circumpolar flow on the transport of heat, freshwater and dissolved components. Approximately 1500 copies of all four volumes, each containing between 265 and 310 plates, will be produced and distributed worldwide. The volumes each have three main components: full-depth sections, horizontal maps of properties on density surfaces and depth levels, and property-property plots. The vertical sections feature potential temperature, salinity, potential density, neutral density, oxygen, nitrate, phosphate, silicate, CFC-11, d3He, tritium, 14C, 13C, total alkalinity and total carbon dioxide, against depth along the WOCE Hydrographic Program one-time lines. In addition to the hard-copy versions of the atlases, each group will also prepare an electronic version of the atlas. These will contain additional parameters and levels not available in the printed version.
Program Contact(s) |
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Division of Ocean Sciences,
NSF