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Panel III: Dr. Robert A. Weller, Dr. J. Frederick Grassle, Dr. Alfred M. Beeton, Dr. Alexander Malahoff.
Chairman GILCHREST. The Subcommittee will come to order. I apologize for the interruption. We may have another one. Because we might have another vote within 10 minutes or within 45 minutes, so I thought it was best to come back and get started again. But thank you very much for your patience and your endurance through all of this.
The third panel is Dr. Robert Weller, Director of Cooperative Institute for Climate and Ocean Research, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. Welcome, Dr. Weller.
Dr. J. Frederick Grassle, Director of Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University. Welcome.
Dr. Alfred Beeton, Senior Science Advisor, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Welcome, sir. I am a little tongue-tied today.
And Dr. Alexander Malahoff, Director, Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory, University of Hawaii. Gentlemen, thank you very much for coming.
Dr. Weller, you may begin.
STATEMENT OF ROBERT A. WELLER, SENIOR SCIENTIST AND DIRECTOR, COOPERATIVE INSTITUTE FOR CLIMATE AND OCEAN RESEARCH, WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION
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Dr. WELLER. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members and staff. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I am, as you said, Mr. Chairman, Director of the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Ocean Research. I am also a blue water oceanographer and I spend about 1 to 2 months a year at sea.
In April 1997 I sailed from Peru to deploy three moorings in the eastern tropical Pacific. One north of the equator, one at the equator and one south of the equator. When we got to the equator we found strange surface currents, strong currents to the east, not what we expected. A message to colleagues at NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Lab provided the answer.
What had happened is that earlier that year in February and March 1997 strong wind events in the western tropical Pacific had excited an oceanic disturbance that was moving its way across the equator. We had intercepted that disturbance. This disturbance it turned out was signaling the onset of the 1997 El Niño which became one of the strongest on record. As you know, during El Niño the presence of anomalously warm water in the eastern tropical Pacific leads to dramatic changes in weather and climate around the world.
After a strong El Niño in 1982 to 1983, NOAA, the National Science Foundation and international partners, had moved forward and begun to deploy an array of 70 moorings to measure surface winds and upper ocean temperatures in the tropical Pacific. It was data from this array that provided us the alert on the ship. It was data from this array that provided the early warnings of the 1997 El Niño and allowed people around the world to prepare.
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In 1999 it was estimated that the value to consumers and producers of these early warnings, for just the U.S. and just the agriculture sector, had been $300 million. For all sectors, the estimate of the value was $1 billion a year. This is a huge payoff when you weigh it against what the U.S. puts into the El Niño observing system annually, $12 million.
There is potential to reap even greater benefits. The ocean stores 1,000 times more heat than the atmosphere. It plays a key role in weather and climate variability on time scales from days to years to decades, out to centuries. It is the climate time scale that we are concerned about.
To bring up a figure, the challenge to moving forward on an ocean observing system is the fact that the world's oceans are interconnected. Water moves from the surface to the bottom and back to the surface along pathways that are global. In the higher latitudes, as you can see in the—on the right-hand side of the North Pacific and the left-hand side in the North Atlantic, ocean water is cooled. It becomes dense, it sinks. It sinks into the interior. It flows through the interior of the world's oceans, eventually returning at and near the equator where it is warmed before it returns poleward.
This interconnectivity means that change at high latitude today in the North Pacific can in several years shows up at the equator in the Pacific and changes the character of El Niño. It also means that change today at high latitudes in the North Atlantic will eventually find its way throughout the whole globe, all the world's oceans. Change at the high latitude in the North Atlantic might in fact disrupt the whole global circulation pattern that you see in this picture.
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Now this challenge is one that we are ready to take on. We know what we need to do. We have the tools. The U.S. has been leading in oceanographic research for decades. The National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have provided the tools, the necessary foundations of instrument development, and basic research.
What is the plan? We will deploy drifting buoys, both on the surface and the ARGO profiling floats. These will give us broad special coverage. We will install moorings. These moorings will collect times series that are required to quantify air to sea exchanges of heat, fresh water, and greenhouse gasses, like CO. And to measure the transports of those properties within the ocean. These moorings will collect data from the sea surface down to the sea bottom.
We will make measurements repeatedly from merchant ships of both surface meteorology and ocean variability. Every five to ten years we will use research ships to collect samples over the full depth of the ocean during cruises that cross the basins and look at how man-made chemicals such as freons and CO are slowly penetrating.
In summary my points are these, first, there is a huge economic benefit. Two, we must go forward globally. The oceans are interconnected. Three, we have the tools, we just need to do it.
I would like to close with a brief, very brief, video and show you some pictures of some of these elements. What you will see at first is my research group from Woods Hole Oceanographic working in the tropical Pacific deploying moorings. That is a surface buoy going over. That is what carried the meteorological instrumentation. Underneath we are attaching oceanographic instrumentation. We are going to anchor this in 4,000 meters of water. All along that mooring line we are putting instruments to measure temperature, salinity, currents. At the bottom we have hollow, glass spheres inside these hard hats as emergency buoyancy. There is an acoustic release. That is the anchor going over.
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We will now steam away from that mooring and leave it for a year. A year later we return to that mooring, recover it. Come alongside, grapple that mooring, recover it, get the data out of the instruments and replace it with the new mooring to keep taking the time series.
We heard earlier about the ARGO floats. That is an ARGO float going over. A simple thing to do, we can deploy from research ships and commercial ships. Sinking down to 1,500 meters or 2,000 meters and coming to the surface telemeter.
Some of the other elements. These are the tracks of existing merchant ships. We need to make use of these tracks and make use of those ships.
These are the locations where we would deploy moorings around the world. Within the red box is the TAO Array, the only place we have instrumented so far. We need to do the rest of these sites. These are the lines of those research cruises every 5 to 10 years to sample the full depth of the ocean circulation.
Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Robert A. Weller follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF ROBERT A. WELLER
The Benefits and Problems Facing the Development of an Integrated Ocean Observing System
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Good afternoon Mr. Chairmen and members of the Subcommittees. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I am Robert Weller, a sea-going research oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and also the Director of the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Ocean Research at the Woods Hole at Oceanographic Institution. In my testimony, I will focus on the open or blue water ocean, as you will hear other testimony on the coastal ocean.
There has been growing need for us to understand climate variability both to assess its impact on society and to guide policy decisions. This need provides a good starting point for a discussion of ocean observing systems. To understand climate variability and change in the earth system, which includes the atmosphere, the land, and the ocean, we need to make the observations necessary to track the energy balance among the components and the energy storage in each component. Critical to climate science are observations that explain the heating of the earth by shortwave radiation from the sun, the balance of that energy accumulation by longwave and reflected shortwave radiation returning to space, the impact of clouds, aerosols, and gases on the passage of longwave and shortwave through the atmosphere, and the partitioning of where energy accumulates (Fig. 1). Equally important, observations are needed to track the redistribution of freshwater and the energy associated with changes in phase of water. For this reason, it is essential to field, maintain, and sustain the land stations, sounding balloons, aircraft, and satellites needed to collect these observations (Fig. 2). Because of their importance to weather prediction, these atmospheric and terrestrial networks already exist and should be sustained and improved.
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However, for the ocean, there is no comparable heritage of sustained observations and no operational global ocean observing system, either for understanding the ocean's role in climate or for support of fisheries, marine transportation, defense or other purposes. An integrated global ocean observing system is needed. Consider the need from the point of view of climate. The ocean, which covers 70% of the earth, can store 1100 times more heat than the atmosphere due to the larger heat capacity and density of water. The upper 2.5 m of the ocean, when warmed 1C, thus stores an amount of heat that would raise the entire column of air above it 1C as well. As a consequence, an anomalously warm region of the ocean has the potential of releasing considerable energy to the atmosphere above. That heat release can alter the weather on short time scales and, if it persists, can alter climate.
The ocean has unique attributes, but these problems have been considered and a well thought out plan for the integrated ocean observing system exists. Because they dictate how to construct an integrated ocean observing system (one that is comprehensive and complete), these attributes are reviewed briefly here. Unlike the land, the ocean is not opaque to shortwave radiation and is mobile. Sunlight heats the upper ocean, and the strong solar insolation in the tropics leads to warm ocean temperatures there. There is thus often a warm surface layer that extends down to 50 to 100 m. This layer is in direct contact with the atmosphere and isolates the bulk of the ocean from direct contact with the atmosphere. Surface currents, such as the Gulf Stream, carry warm water from the tropics poleward (Fig. 3). In locations of heavy rain this surface layer is also made more buoyant by the additional
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freshwater. In the western equatorial Pacific, rain and solar heating combine to make a warm pool of surface water. During El Niño that warm water is found instead in the eastern tropical Pacific, and the anomalous location of such warm water is associated with the major climate and weather impacts of ENSO. In locations outside the tropics, however, our lack of observations of air-sea exchanges and ocean pathways leaves us unable to be definitive about the mechanisms by which the oceans and atmosphere influence each other, though patterns of variability, such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) are evident.
The circulation in the ocean is not limited to the surface layer. When surface water becomes denser when cooled by the heat loss to the atmosphere and when salt is left behind during evaporation, it can sink into the interior of the ocean (Fig. 4). Convergent, wind-driven flow in the surface layer can also force water into the interior. Horizontal flow in the ocean's interior, like that in the atmosphere, is due
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to horizontal pressure gradients resulting from spatial differences in the density of seawater. The action of the surface winds, heat and freshwater fluxes and subsequent flows in the interior of the oceans yield a fully three-dimensional flow. Particularly dense water is formed in the northern North Atlantic and along the coast of Antarctica. A much-simplified schematic of the ocean's circulation shows these water masses sinking and flowing at depth through the global ocean, rising again to the surface where they are warmed by contact with the atmosphere in the tropics and subtropics the deep ocean over the globe (Fig. 5). Note that a warmer globe could lead to melting of the polar ice caps and that the resulting freshness of the surface water at high latitudes could reduce the formation of dense water in the North Atlantic and in the Southern Ocean, thus altering the present large-scale three-dimensional flow of the world's oceans.
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Changes in air-sea exchanges and in surface currents alter the pattern of sources and sinks for heat, freshwater, and other constituents at the base of the atmosphere and thus impact climate. The three-dimensional circulation in the ocean fully engages the very large reservoirs of the interior of ocean, over a wide range of time scales reaching to longer than decadal, in the climate system. An ocean observing system must thus observe the air-sea exchanges, the ocean pathways for transport, which lie along the boundaries of the basins as well as at the surface and in the interior, where heat, freshwater, and other properties are stored, and how the pattern of storage is evolving. This is a challenge. Changes in interior temperature and salinity will result in changes in the density-driven flow, which, in turn, may further redistribute these properties. Thus, attribution of change in temperature at a site must consider not only the possibility that additional heat is accumulating or being lost but also that changes in the three-dimensional flow has brought water of a different temperature and salinity to the site.
Measuring the air-sea exchange of heat, freshwater, momentum, CO, and other constituents important to climate and weather is a central goal of an ocean observing system. Numerical models and existing climatologies have large errors in the air-sea fluxes they provide, and these errors are an impediment to gauging the ocean's role in climate; and the accuracy of weather predictions at sea is limited by the lack of data from the oceans. The installation of a number (5 to 10 per ocean basin) of surface buoys is recommended to provide, at key locations, accurate time series of the surface meteorology and air-sea exchanges. These buoys would be equipped to measure surface wind, relative humidity, air temperature, sea surface temperature, barometric pressure, incoming shortwave radiation, incoming longwave radiation, and rain (Fig. 6). Sampling as fast as once per minute, these buoys are essential as the first step in an effort to obtain the air-sea fluxes over
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the basins needed to quantify the ocean's role as a source and sink in the climate system, to serve as the variable and energetic forcing on the bottom of 70% of the atmosphere (and thus a major role in weather), and to be used to understand ocean response to change in surface forcing. The choice of the locations for these sites is guided by the need to observe air-sea exchange in characteristic meteorological provinces over the ocean, such as in equatorial convection, under the stratocumulus clouds found west of California and of Peru and Chile, and in the trade wind belts, and to observe air-sea exchanges in regions of strong coupling between the ocean and atmosphere.
The buoys will serve as references sites or anchors in the work of making the maps of air-sea exchanges that are needed. The spatial distribution of the air-sea exchanges around the reference sites would be obtained, in the locations that merchant ships are available, by equipping those Volunteer Observing Ships (VOS) with similar instrumentation (Fig. 7). The observations from the surface reference sites
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and VOS would be used to calibrate and drive improvements to atmospheric models and satellite remote sensing that would provide additional information about the surface meteorology and air-sea fluxes and allow production of global maps of air sea exchanges.
Observing the pathways for transport on the surface and in the interior of the ocean and the evolution of the property distribution within the ocean is also a central goal and requires broad spatial coverage of the fields, high spatial and temporal resolution to resolve pathways, and moorings. Broad coverage of the basins is to be accomplished by on an ongoing basis by a combination of the VOS, free-drifting instruments, and satellites. The VOS will drop expendable temperature probes (XBTS or expendable bathythermographs). The VOS can drop XBTS frequently enough to obtain the close spatial sampling needed to resolve the transport in boundary currents and the transport associated with ocean eddies. New, free-drifting ARGO floats that change their buoyancy and obtain vertical profiles every 10 days will be deployed globally with 100 km spacing to observe temperature and salinity in the upper 1500 to 2000 m (Fig. 8). Together with satellite observations of sea surface height and surface wind, the ARGO floats will allow the broad scale evolution of the upper 1500 m of the ocean to be tracked. Surface drifters will be deployed for calibrating remotely-sensed sea surface temperatures, and land-based tide gauges are needed to calibrate satellite altimetry.
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Moorings, both with surface meteorological buoys and with no surface buoy (Fig. 9), will be used in key locations to quantify flow along pathways between the surface and the interior and between the warm tropics and the cooler extratropical regions. At sites where surface waters are cooled and sink and where convergent flow forces surface water into the interior, the air-sea fluxes will be quantified and the progression of water from the surface into the ocean interior will be observed. At sites where strong, narrow currents carry large volumes of water, arrays of moorings will measure the volume, heat, and salinity of these currents (Fig.10).
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The time series collected by moorings or by frequent visitation by a ship will provide a key record of change from the surface of the ocean down to the bottom. At present, very few such observing sites exist in the ocean; and our record of change in the oceanic interior is sparse. In conjunction with plans to occupy a number of surface flux reference sites, the integrated ocean observing network would have time series sites at key locations to quantify transports and observe change.
The progression of water from the surface into the interior and to the ocean bottom is slow, estimated to take up to 100 years in some locations. Along the way, mixing processes modify the water mass, so tracking the slow overturning of the global ocean requires additional observations. Releases into the atmosphere of chemicals, such as of tritium, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and CO, that enter into the ocean provide tracers that can be used to track the passage of chemicals through the ocean. Careful sampling, by lowering instruments from ships and obtaining water samples at depths through the water column, should be made along select north-south and east-west sections across the ocean basins. These sections (Fig. 11) would be occupied only every 5 to 10 years, and are essential to describing the slow overturning circulation of the ocean as well as change in the temperature and salinity of the deep ocean, at depths below where the ARGO profiling floats will sample. We now have few records of oceanic variability at depth. The repeat sections will build that record; and, at the same time, they will validate numerical models of the deep ocean circulation that may be used in coupled ocean-atmosphere models to investigate climate change and ocean variability.
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While the focus of much of this discussion has been on physical observations, such as temperature and salinity, the required ocean observing network should make biological, chemical, and geological observations concurrently with physical observations. In the ocean, variability is often linked. For example, greater phytoplankton concentration in the upper ocean increases the absorption of sunlight and thus the heating of the water near the surface. Some platforms, such as moorings and ships, are now well equipped to carry out such multidisciplinary sampling. In addition to knowing how and where heat and freshwater are transported, the ocean observing system will provide the basis for understanding transport of nutrients, pollutants and harmful species (toxic algae, for example) and the observations needed to better predict surface waves and marine weather that impact transportation, recreation, and safety.
In contrast to the land and atmosphere, the ocean is sparsely observed. It is, however, a major part of the climate system, particularly so because of its large reservoirs and ability to move properties active in climate dynamics, such as heat, around over a wide range of time scales. An integrated ocean observing system for climate can be developed; such a system has been outlined above.
The ocean is where some of us work and many of us play. It is close to many of our homes and provides food and energy. An integrated ocean observing system will not only address climate issues; it will also provide benefits that address other societal needs, particularly if the data is available in near-real time. Knowledge of sea level change and of ocean currents, surface waves, temperatures, salinities, plant and animal populations, distribution and storage of greenhouse gases is important to weather prediction, the development of sound environmental policies and management strategies, to safety, to security, and to economic well being.
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We do not have an integrated ocean observing system. Very few sustained ocean observations are now made. The plans and methods for an integrated observing system for the ocean have been developed. One region, the tropical Pacific Ocean, has been instrumented; and the return on the investment has been clear due to our increased ability to forecast El Niño and provide advanced warning of its impact on weather. In partnership with other nations, the United States should commit to completing a global ocean observing system.
The major problem facing the development of an integrated ocean observing has the lack to date of a national commitment to do so. This has resulted in the lack of key resources. These missing resources include: funding, technology, and infrastructure.
In most cases, observational priorities are agreed upon, the technology has been developed to collect the required observations, and the plan for implementing the system has been drafted. However, sustained funding has not been available. A few elements are in place, including the ENSO observing system in the tropical Pacific Ocean and the initial deployments of the Argo floats. There is no apparent source of support for the balance of a sustained, integrated ocean observing system.
In some cases, enabling technology is needed. A pressing need is increased capacity for passing data collected at sea from ships, buoys, and floats back to land. Technical advances have improved our ability to bring data to the sea surface from the ocean's interior. However, there is limited satellite capacity then available for relaying that ocean data back to the centers on land that would prepare the predictions, maps, and other products we need. This lack will limit the amount of ocean data we can acquire in near-real time. It will also prevent us from developing of an ocean observing system that resembles our present atmospheric and terrestrial systems in their ability to provide immediate coverage. Development of longer-lived and more capable observing instruments is needed to maximize the effectiveness and value of the ocean observing system.
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Finally, the lack of a national commitment to sustained ocean observations has left us with have no infrastructure to support and guide such an development and maintenance of an ocean observing system. No agency has taken the lead. No person within the government is identified as a point of contact for other nations to interact with while agreeing on international commitments of support and responsibility for sectors of the ocean and contributions to the different observing elements. Progress to date has been made using the research infrastructure (funds, people, ships, labs). An integrated ocean observing system will require an investment in instrumentation and hardware, support for ships to deploy and service the system, people to quality control and process the data, communications systems to pass the data along, and the means to use the data to prepare products of use to society. This requires a commitment within the government.
In closing, thank you for allowing me to submit this testimony. The climate example was developed at length to demonstrate the readiness of the plans and methods to implement an integrated ocean observing system. Such an open ocean system links to the coastal observing systems, where it provides for them the knowledge that links those coastal regions to the open ocean and where the coastal observing systems provide key knowledge of coastal sinks and sources of carbon, freshwater, pollutants, marine life, and other quantities. The open ocean system described above is also linked to a system of operational satellites for oceanography, whose measurements would include sea surface temperature and winds, sea level from altimetry, and ocean color. I would be glad to answer questions and provide further explanation.
Chairman GILCHREST. Thank you, Dr. Weller. Dr. Grassle.
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STATEMENT OF J. FREDERICK GRASSLE, DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE OF MARINE AND COASTAL SCIENCES, RUTGERS—THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY
Dr. GRASSLE. I am Fred Grassle, Director of the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University. I thank each of the chairs for this opportunity to provide remarks on the proposed Integrated Coastal Ocean Observing System and Ocean Observatories Initiative, and the development of the Ocean Exploration Program.
My remarks focus on a need for a national network of linked and coordinated ocean observing systems and observatories and recommendations on how such a network should be established. I also support the emerging Ocean Exploration and Census of Marine Life Programs, and make suggestions for advancing these programs. I have been involved in the development of one of the world's first undersea observatories—and there are a couple graphics that illustrate the LEO–15 Observatory—participated in national efforts to construct a network of ocean observatories, serve as Principal Investigator for the inaugural expedition of the Ocean Exploration Program, and chair of the Steering Committee for the Census of Marine Life.
There are many urgent reasons for developing an integrated national network of coastal ocean observing systems. More than half of all Americans live within the coastal zone, and the ocean is our common source of enjoyment, and our responsibility. Fish stocks are being depleted and some fish habitat is being damaged. The seabed is used for oil and gas production, sand and gravel mining, and telecommunications cables. Periods of oxygen depletion are common, and the numbers and types of harmful algal blooms have increased. High levels of contaminants in coastal sediments affect bottom life and cause our ports and harbors to find means to dispose of dredged material. More than 95 percent of the nation's foreign trade moves by sea. Continuous observations are needed to ensure safe, efficient operations of the nation's congested ports.
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Rutgers' Long-Term Ecosystem Observatory, LEO–15, off the coast of New Jersey, has maintained continuous measurements in the near-shore zone publicly available over the Internet for over four years. These measurements are now extended to include images of sea surface currents in the New York Bight to the edge of the continental shelf. This Sunday, scientists at Rutgers University will assimilate observations into models to produce a 3-day forecast of ocean circulation for the entire coastal shelf region from Long Island to below Delaware Bay. Reports of coastal conditions are already being carried, along with the weather, by local news stations. Through the National Ocean Partnership Program, NOPP, and direct support from NOAA, the NSF, ONR and NASA, the Rutgers LEO system and similar systems developing in every region of the country are ready to coalesce into a sustained, integrated, nationwide system. A sustained network of linked and coordinated regional ocean observing systems will provide a new way of looking at, working in, and understanding the ocean.
The extension of the LEO–15 observatory to the entire New Jersey continental shelf can serve as a model for constructing a national network of observing systems and observatories. Long-range, high-frequency radar systems should be placed along the entire coast to continuously map surface current flows for the coastal ocean. A combination of surface current information, satellite observations, subsurface measurements from buoys and autonomous gliders should be available in near real time for assimilation into model forecasts. This modeling and measurement system is needed to support the growing community of users of ocean information.
Embedded in this continuous coverage, intensive observatory facilities operated by scientists from all disciplines are needed to conduct long-term experiments, sustain long time series observations, and test new ideas. These sites will be the proving grounds for the development and validation of new technology for use by the observing system network: samples, sensors, robotic controls, data processing systems, and autonomous underwater vehicles. The National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research have played major roles in the development of the LEO observatory, and should continue to play the leading role in the development of intensive observatory technologies, including the deep-sea and deep-earth observatories linked to shore by underwater cables and new broad bandwidth communications. In my own area of research, the Census of Marine Life program provides many examples of the potential for new discoveries in the ocean.
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With regard to administration of the national ocean observing and observatory system, I recommend that the National Ocean Research Leadership Council (NORLC) and National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP) be responsible for coordinating system activities, and approving standards and protocols for administering the system. This recommendation is in accord with previous reports to Congress and the Administration. Last May the NORLC approved the NOPP Interagency Ocean Observation Office, ''Ocean.US,'' that you have already heard about, with a charter to develop national capability for integrating and sustaining ocean observations and predictions. To provide technical assistance in the management, archiving and analysis of data, NOAA's National Ocean Service has a strong track record in linking science to management. New approaches to bridging the gap between data providers and data users are being developed at NOS' Coastal Services Center, NASA's Earth Science Applications Center, and the NOPP-sponsored Ocean Biogeographic Information System, a component of the Census of Marine Life Program.
I was a member of the panel that provided the report on Ocean Exploration. I strongly support the goals outlined in that report. And my colleagues, Marcia McNutt and Bob Ballard, have spoken about this in more detail. Incidentally, the second expedition to hydrothermal vents that included the biologists I was co-chief scientist in charge of the biologists.
In closing I would like to thank Chairman Gilchrest, Chairman Ehlers, Chairman Smith, and members of the Committees, for the opportunity to comment on ocean observing systems, observatories, and ocean exploration. These are good ideas that merit strong consideration for authorizing legislation. I will be pleased to respond to any questions the Committee may have. Thank you.
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Chairman GILCHREST. Thank you, Dr. Grassle. Congressman Saxton asked me to say hi.
Dr. GRASSLE. Well, yes. I was hoping I could recognize him here today. He has certainly been a wonderful supporter of marine science.
[The prepared statement of J. Frederick Grassle follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF J. FREDERICK GRASSLE
Summary of Comments
Development of Coastal and Ocean Observing Systems and Observatories
More than half of all Americans live within the coastal zone and the ocean is a common source of enjoyment and our responsibility. Fish stocks are being depleted and, in some areas, fishing gear damages bottom habitats. Uses of the seabed for oil and gas production, sand and gravel mining, and telecommunication cables are increasing. Periods of oxygen depletion are common, and the number and types of harmful algal blooms have increased. High levels of contaminants in coastal sediments affect bottom life, and cause our ports and harbors to find means to dispose of dredged material. More than 95% of the Nation's foreign trade moves by sea. Continuous observations are needed to ensure safe, efficient operations of the Nation's congested ports. A sustained, nationwide network of linked and coordinated regional ocean observing systems and observatories is needed to improve weather and ocean forecasting, predict effects of climate change on coastal populations, improve safety and efficiency of marine operations, improve public understanding of processes affecting coastal habitats and their living marine resources, provide more effective evaluations of the efficacy of environmental policies for coastal ecosystems, and foster science-based management of coastal ecosystems and their natural resources. A nationwide network of regional coastal ocean observing systems should measure common parameters using uniform methods and protocols; respond to the information needs of diverse user groups that depend on the coastal ocean for work, security, recreation, and research; be cost-effective and capitalize on existing infrastructure; provide continuous, long-term, and real-time observations and predictions of ocean phenomena in a timely and integrated way; and sustained basis, and provide a source of data and information to increase public awareness of the status and importance of the Nation's coastal oceans.
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Ocean Exploration
To advance the Ocean Exploration Program, NOAA has created the Office of Ocean Exploration. In some respects, this duplicates activities of an existing program renowned for its exploratory achievements and hallmark record of safety in undersea operations—the National Undersea Research Program (NURP). NURP has developed rigorous procedures for peer review and undersea operations, and has well-established mechanisms for communicating with the ocean science community. It is important for NOAA to ensure that NURP be closely involved with the administration of the Ocean Exploration Program. Such integration will ensure safe field operations, foster exploration programs that advance quantitative science investigations, avoid duplication of effort, and reduce costs.
Introduction
Good afternoon. My name is Fred Grassle and I am the Director of the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University. I would like to thank each of the chairs for the opportunity to provide remarks on the establishment of an Integrated Coastal Ocean Observing System, an Ocean Observatories Initiative, and the development of an Ocean Exploration Program. I would also like to recognize two New Jersey legislators who have been effective supporters of coastal and ocean research, Representative James Saxton the former Chair of the House Subcommittee on Fisheries Conservation, Wildlife and Oceans, and Representative Frank Pallone who serves on the same committee. Their continuing strong support has ensured that robust science programs are in place to support informed management of our coastal and ocean resources.
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My remarks focus on the need for a national network of linked and coordinated ocean observing systems and observatories and recommendations on how such a network should be established. I will also comment on the emerging Ocean Exploration and Census Of Marine Life Programs, and make suggestions for advancing these programs. The basis of my remarks stems from my involvement in development of one of the world's first undersea observatories, participation in national efforts to construct a network of ocean observatories, and my roles as Principal Investigator for the inaugural expedition of the Ocean Exploration Program and Chair of the Steering Committee for the Census of Marine Life.
Rationale for a National Network of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems
More than half of all Americans live within the coastal zone, i.e., within 50 miles of ocean. The ocean is our common source of enjoyment and common responsibility. Fish stocks, once thought to be inexhaustible, are being depleted and, in some areas, fishing gear damages bottom habitats. Uses of the seabed for oil and gas production, sand and gravel mining, and telecommunications cables are increasing. Periods of oxygen depletion are common, and the number and types of harmful algal blooms have increased during the last 25 years. High levels of contaminants are found in coastal sediments, affecting bottom life, and causing our ports and harbors to seek expensive means of disposal of dredged material. More than 95% of the Nation's foreign trade moves by sea. Continuous observations are needed to ensure safe and efficient operations of the Nation's congested ports.
A sustained, nationwide network of linked and coordinated regional ocean observing systems is needed to:
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improve weather and ocean forecasting in coastal regions
predict effects of climate change on coastal populations
improve safety and efficiency of marine operations, including search and rescue, swimming, boating, fishing, transportation, and naval warfare
improve public awareness and scientific understanding of processes affecting coastal habitats and their living marine resources
provide more effective means for monitoring and evaluating the efficacy of environmental policies for coastal ecosystems
foster science-based management of coastal marine ecosystems and their natural resources
Scientists, managers, and the public are often not well-equipped to make decisions about marine ecosystems, especially in environments where visibility is poor and a common sense approach literally depends on access to the latest methods for sampling and sensing the marine environment. Marine environmental issues would be less complex and easier to solve if the marine information base on ecosystems, habitats, and patterns of change were as readily available as for terrestrial environments. The ability to address complex issues and find solutions suffers from the compartmentalization of marine science disciplines and methodologies, and a lack of integration with the disciplines of resource economics and environmental management. Many marine issues, such as fisheries management, the siting of reserves, protection and restoration of habitats, human health (hazardous spill response, harmful algal blooms), safety (vessel traffic control, search and rescue, storm surge prediction), and waste disposal, require resolution through more accurate, comprehensive, and timely information.
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All aspects of ocean ecosystems are presently under-sampled. Decisions are made about sampling designs for research and monitoring without an adequate spatial or temporal context. Technological advances in observation, modeling, and data assimilative methodologies enable us to enter a new era in oceanography, that of the well-sampled ocean. New remote sensing and autonomous systems now allow us to sample the ocean at time and space scales never before achieved, and parallel computing algorithms can generate forecasts of the ocean in real time. Data assimilation schemes allow us to constrain the model forecasts with observations, thereby increasing their utility in practical applications. Researchers at LEO–15, the undersea observatory located off the coast of New Jersey, have led the nation in the development of these coastal ocean observation and modeling systems.
At LEO–15 it has been possible to make many continuous measurements throughout the year for four years, but the intense sampling effort needed to achieve a well-sampled ocean can now only be achieved through intensive bursts of activity in a 30 km by 30 km research area in which real-time ocean currents are observed from shore via an existing medium-range high-frequency radar (CODAR). Regional-scale, ocean surface current data acquired through a long-range (200 km), high-frequency radar system would provide one of the most important data sets needed to improve vessel traffic safety and management of harbor activities.
Rutgers' Long-term Ecosystem Observatory (LEO–15) off the coast of New Jersey has made continuous measurements in the near-shore zone publicly available in near real time through the Internet. For the first time, these measurements have been extended to include images of sea surface currents in the New York Bight to the edge of the continental shelf. By Sunday, July 15, scientists at Rutgers University will produce a 3-day forecast of ocean circulation for the entire shelf region from Long Island to below Delaware Bay. Reports of these coastal conditions are being carried, along with the weather, by local news stations. Through the National Ocean Partnership Program (NOPP) and other federal and state sources of support, the Rutgers LEO system and similar systems developing in every region of the country are ready to coalesce into a sustained, integrated, nationwide system. A sustained network of linked and coordinated regional ocean observing systems will provide a new way of looking at, working in, and understanding the ocean.
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The extension of the LEO–15 observatory to the entire New Jersey continental shelf can serve as a useful model for constructing a national network of observing systems in two ways. First, we should establish a series of shore stations equipped with new, long-range, high-frequency radar systems to continuously map surface current flows for the coastal ocean. Common standards and protocols have already been worked out by users of this equipment. Data should be made available in real-time on the World Wide Web, and when assimilated into existing hydrodynamic models, can be used to forecast the three-dimensional circulation on the continental shelf. A combination of satellite observations of sea surface temperature, surface roughness, primary productivity (at 30 m resolution when a new Navy-sponsored, hyperspectral ocean color satellite is launched), and high-resolution bathymetry and side-scan sonar will provide an enhanced context for ocean sampling. The proposed modeling and measurement system will provide regional perspectives for policy, planning, and economic analysis, and it is the rationale for development of a national network of high-frequency radars, buoys, bottom observatories, and autonomous glider vehicles. Regional-scale, real-time data will further aid search and rescue efforts by using CODAR surface currents to predict locations of vessels in distress, and inform cleanup efforts with trajectories of spills of hazardous material.
Secondly, intensive observatory facilities involving all scientific disciplines are needed where long-term experiments and sustained time series observations can be conducted and new ideas tested. New and substantial infrastructure is needed to enable exciting scientific discoveries such as those envisioned by the Census of Marine Life program. These sites will be the proving grounds for development and validation of new technology for use by the observing system network: samplers, sensors, robotic controls, data processing systems, and autonomous underwater vehicles. Scientific validation is required before information generated from new technology will be accepted by the general public. The National Science Foundation has played a major role in the development of the LEO observatory and should continue to play the leading role in the development of intensive observatory technologies, including deep-sea and deep-earth observatories linked to shore by underwater cables.
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A nationwide network of regional coastal ocean observing systems should:
measure a common set of parameters using uniform methods and protocols, which can be regionally and locally enhanced
be based on sound science
respond to the information needs of diverse user groups that depend on the coastal ocean for work, security, recreation, and research (e.g., facilitate safe and efficient marine operations, ensure national security, support management of living resources and marine ecosystems, ensure a sustainable food supply, mitigate natural hazards, and ensure public health)
be cost-effective and capitalize on existing infrastructure (e.g., autonomous undersea vehicles, gliders, cabled observatories, satellite remote sensing, CODAR technology)
provide continuous, long-term, and real-time observations and predictions of ocean events and phenomena on a timely, integrated, and sustained basis
provide a source of data and information that increases public awareness of the status and importance of the Nation's coastal oceans
Consideration must be given to the administration of the national coastal ocean observing system and what body will be responsible for establishing standards and protocols to govern the system. Given that a variety of federal agencies will be involved in the observing network, I recommend that the National Ocean Research Leadership Council (NORLC), the organization created to implement the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP), be responsible for coordinating system activities, and approving standards and protocols for administering the system. This recommendation is in accord with the plans for implementation in ''Toward a U.S. Plan for an Integrated, Sustained Ocean Observing System'' submitted to Congress on 20 April, 1999, in response to a request from Representatives James Saxton and Curt Weldon, and with the subsequent NORLC Report ''An Integrated Ocean Observing System: A Strategy for Implementing The First Steps of a U.S. Plan'' completed December 24, 1999. On May 22, 2000 the NORLC approved the NOPP Interagency Ocean Observation Office, ''Ocean.US,'' with a charter to develop a national capability for integrating and sustaining ocean observations and predictions.
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Coastal ocean observing systems should be organized regionally. The Committee might consider establishing a federation of seven regional observing systems: Northeast, Southeast, Gulf of Mexico, West Coast, Hawaii, Alaska, and the Great Lakes. Representatives from each of these regions, drawn from academic and research institutions, and state and local governments could serve as an advisory council for the NORLC.
A single entity should be charged with providing technical assistance to the regional systems in the management, archiving, and analysis of data. One candidate is NOAA's National Ocean Service (NOS) which has a strong track record in linking science to management products and services. New approaches are developing to bridge the gap between data providers and data users at NOS' Coastal Services Center, NASA's Earth Science Applications Center, and in the NOPP-sponsored Ocean Biogeographic Information System, a component of the Census of Marine Life Program.
Ocean Exploration
As Committee members are aware, $4 million was appropriated in FY 2001 to initiate an Ocean Exploration Program at NOAA. This appropriation was provided to implement recommendations from the report on ''Discovering the Earth's Final Frontier: A U.S. Strategy for Ocean Exploration,'' produced by a national panel convened by a Presidential Executive Order. I had the privilege of serving on this panel and am thoroughly familiar with the rationale for the report recommendations. Four challenges were highlighted as the most significant gaps in our knowledge of the oceans including: 1) mapping at new scales, 2) exploring ocean dynamics and interactions at new scales, 3) developing new technologies, and 4) reaching out in new ways to stakeholders. The report set forth a variety of exploration priorities including: Voyages of Discovery, Tools for Probing the Ocean, Data Management and Dissemination, Education and Outreach, and Capital Investment.
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With the FY 2001 support, NOAA has organized expeditions to identify new species that may hold potential economic benefits, evaluate potential new energy or food resources, explore submerged cultural resources, and evaluate the effect of sound on marine resources and ecosystems. In September, I will help lead one of these expeditions known as Deep East. Deep East will feature mapping of deep sea corals in the offshore canyons and seamounts off Georges Bank, seafloor processes in the Hudson River Canyon, and biological and geochemical interactions at the Blake Ridge off Georgia. I will serve as the principal investigator for Leg 2, which is associated with the Hudson River Canyon.
Hudson Canyon extends over 400 nautical miles seaward from the New York-New Jersey Harbor across the continental margin to the deep North Atlantic ocean basin. Although it is the largest submarine canyon on the Atlantic continental margin of North America, and lies directly offshore of America's largest metropolitan area, Hudson Canyon remains to be explored with integrated high-resolution mapping and direct observations and sampling.
Submarine canyons are conduits for the transport of sediments including pollutants between land and sea, a process complicated by the interaction of down-slope movement and cross-slope flow of deep ocean currents. Low-resolution side-scan sonar (GLORIA), and medium-to high-resolution seismic reflection, echo sounding, and magnetic profiles (USGS, 1991), reveal that Hudson Canyon is susceptible to mass transport of materials down-canyon, and may thus concentrate pollutants and other materials in the canyon axis and on the continental rise. Evidence for high species abundance comes from surveys supported by the Minerals Management Service (MMS) involving quantitative analysis of box cores recovered from sediments of the continental slope and upper rise between water depths of 1,500 m and 2,500 m at 10 stations off New Jersey and Delaware. The survey also revealed remarkable biodiversity at these depths. Studies on the Hatteras slope similarly suggest that sediments of the middle to lower slope are the recipients of down-canyon transport.
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A series of drill holes on the outer continental shelf, slope, and rise off New Jersey by the Deep Sea Drilling Program (Legs 11, 93, and 95) and the Ocean Drilling Program (Legs 150 and 174) established the sequence and ages of sedimentary strata, and revealed a massive bed of methane gas hydrates extending beneath the Hudson Canyon region. The presence of methane gas hydrates beneath this region opens new avenues for discoveries of processes involving the role of fluid pressure (confined gas and water) beneath the seafloor, which relate to geologic hazards (slumps and tsunamis) and climate change (methane release); the probable occurrence of chemosynthetic organisms (macrofauna and microbes) at cold seeps that relate to biodiversity and to sources of new pharmaceutical and industrial products; and to methane itself as an energy resource.
Relationship of Ocean Exploration to the National Undersea Research Program
To advance the Ocean Exploration Program, NOAA has created a new office, the Office of Ocean Exploration. In some respects, this action duplicates activities conducted by an existing program that is renowned for its exploratory achievements and hallmark record of safety with the conduct of undersea operations—the National Undersea Research Program (NURP).
NURP is organized on a regional basis with six centers serving undersea science needs in the Northeast and Great Lakes, Mid-Atlantic Bight, Southeast Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, West Coast and Alaska, and Hawaii. NURP has developed rigorous procedures with respect to peer review and undersea operations, and has well-established mechanisms for communicating with the ocean science community. Existing regional infrastructure at the six NURP Centers provides local links to the science community, knowledge of advanced undersea sampling and sensing platforms, and experience with the conduct of undersea operations. I believe that it is important for NOAA to ensure that NURP be closely involved with the administration of the Ocean Exploration Program. Such integration can ensure safe field operations, foster a process wherein exploration programs can advance quantitative science investigations, avoid duplication of effort, and reduce costs.
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Summary
In closing, I would like to thank Chairman Gilchrest, Chairman Ehlers, Chairman Smith, and members of the Committees for the opportunity to comment on ocean observing systems, observatories, and ocean exploration. These are good ideas that merit strong consideration for authorizing legislation. I will be pleased to respond to any questions that the Committees may have at this time. Thank you.
Contact Information:
J. Frederick Grassle, Director, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers—The State University of New Jersey, 71 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901–8521; 732–932–6555, ext. 509; 732–932–8578, Fax; grassle@imcs.rutgers.edu
Chairman GILCHREST. Yes, sir. Thank you. Dr. Beeton.
STATEMENT OF ALFRED M. BEETON, CHAIR, SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION
Dr. BEETON. Good afternoon. I am Al Beeton, Chair of the Science Advisory Board of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And I appreciate the invitation of the Chairman to testify on ocean exploration and development and implementation of coastal and ocean observing systems, especially as they apply to the Great Lakes.
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My research on the Great Lake started in 1955 and continues today. I have served in various ways for the International Joint Commission, the Great Lakes Commission, and Great Lakes Fishery Commission. I was Director of the Great Lakes and Marine Water Center, and the Sea Grant Program and the University of Michigan. I was Associate Director of the Great Lakes Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin, and Director of the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory of NOAA in Ann Arbor.
The Science Advisory Board is the only Federal committee whose responsibility is to advise the Undersecretary of Commerce for oceans and atmosphere on long and short-term strategies for research, education, and application of science to resource management. The panel on ocean exploration was a subset of the Science Advisory Board. And the panel produced the report ''Discovering Earth's Final Frontier: The Strategy for Ocean Exploration,'' which recommended the establishment of a program on ocean exploration. And as a consequence, NOAA followed up and established the Office of Ocean Exploration.
The coastal and ocean observations are certainly essential for predicting events that affect commerce as well as life. Water level changes, floods, storms, and harmful algal blooms are a few of the disasters that may be predicted to minimize financial and personal loss. Including and emphasizing the Great Lakes in legislation dealing with ocean exploration and coastal and ocean observing systems will benefit the nation as well as the region.
Ocean exploration activity will enhance the efforts to inventory and document the resources of the recently established Thunder Bay Marine Sanctuary in Lake Huron, as well as resources of Old Woman Creek Estuarine Research Reserve on Lake Erie. The aquatic resources of the Isle Royal National Park and other Federal recreational resources in the Great Lakes will benefit from this effort.
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Ocean exploration activity should also provide for geophysical surveys to provide data to facilities for preparation of modern, updated bathymetric charts for navigation, underwater structures, fisheries, and recreation. The most recent survey of the Great Lakes was done in the 1970's and they did not include many areas of the lakes. People making charts had to use many data from the 1930's, and in some instances data from the 1800's. Certainly, it will be wise to have new and useful data for new charts.
We know a great deal about the Great Lakes, but much if not most, of our knowledge comes from sporadic surveys, individual observations, short-term studies, and some monitoring at water intakes. We need long-term monitoring to provide the kinds of data essential for detecting subtle changes in the Great Lake ecosystems. Such monitoring should be part of a Great Lakes coastal observatory system which would provide a coherent assessment of long-term data as well as detect shorter-term impacts. Monitoring of coastal water quality is essential to public health.
Recent advances in technology have made it possible to develop and implement sophisticated coastal ocean observing systems and state-of-the-art ocean exploration techniques and instrumentation. New sensors are being developed which will allow acquisition of data rapidly and accurately. In addition, we have new and better ways to manage data, transmit data, assess, and use data. Consequently, this is an appropriate time to move ahead on ocean exploration and observing systems.
And I thank you for the invitation to speak here today. And I will pleased to answer questions. Thank you.
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[The prepared statement of Alfred M. Beeton follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF ALFRED M. BEETON
Good afternoon, Chairman Gilchrest, Chairman Ehlers, and Chairman Smith, members of the subcommittees and staff. My name is Al Beeton, and I am the Chair of the Science Advisory Board (SAB) at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). I would like to begin by thanking the Chairmen for inviting me to testify on the three important issues of ocean exploration, and the development and implementation of coastal and ocean observing systems, especially as they pertain to the Great Lakes.
I have many years of experience in dealing with many issues affecting the St. Lawrence Great Lakes. My research on the lakes commenced in 1955 and continues to the present. For years I served in various ways for the International Joint Commission, the Great Lakes Commission, and the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission. I was Director of the Great Lakes and Marine Waters Center and Michigan Sea Grant, University of Michigan; Associate Director of the Center for Great Lakes Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Director of the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory of NOAA.
The Science Advisory Board was established by a Decision Memorandum on September 25, 1997. It is the only Federal Advisory Committee with responsibility to advise the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere on long- and short-range strategies for research, education and the application of science to resource management. The Board is composed of 15 eminent scientists, engineers, resource managers and educators that provide their expertise to ensure that NOAA science programs are of the highest quality and to provide advice and support to resource management. The latest Science Advisory Board meeting occurred two weeks ago in Santa Cruz, California, where the Board advised NOAA on fisheries science issues ranging from scientific quality of data acquisition to managing science in a regulatory environment, as well as on climate monitoring strategies.
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Ocean Exploration:
The President's Panel on Ocean Exploration was a subset of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Science Advisory Board which included six member of the Board. The Panel produced the report ''Discovering Earth's Final Frontier: A U.S. Strategy for Ocean Exploration,'' recommending the establishment of a program of ocean exploration, from which the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration was created. The Panel determined four key objectives for a national strategy in tackling ocean exploration: to map the physical, geological, biological, chemical and archaeological aspects of the ocean; to explore ocean dynamics to increase understanding of the ocean's complex interactions; to develop new sensors and systems for ocean exploration, and to communicate the new-gained knowledge effectively to stakeholders and the community.
Ocean Exploration in the United States began as early as 1807 when Thomas Jefferson authorized the Survey of the Coast, but despite of this, the ocean as well as the Great Lakes are understudied. Much benefit can be attained by furthering knowledge on ocean life, physics and chemistry, and better knowledge is translated into better advising by the Science Advisory Board. Concerning the Great Lakes specifically, the region would benefit greatly by updating bottom topography, as the area is vital to the country's shipping industry. The Great Lakes are also a very important region for maritime history and archaeology. An example is the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve in Lake Huron, where more than a hundred ships are suspected to have sunk there, but only 40 locations are presently known. Recently an expedition led by Dr. Robert Ballard in partnership with NOAA and the State of Michigan surveyed the area using a new side-scan sonar and sub-bottom profiling technology called ECHO, and found 50–70 targets, where 10–15 are verified shipwrecks, 3 of them previously unknown. I would like to add that despite the great public and scientific support behind the ocean exploration effort, the House mark failed to reflect this.
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Coastal and Ocean Observations:
Coastal and Ocean observations are paramount for predicting events that affect commerce as well as human lives. Water-level change, floods, storms, and harmful algal blooms are a few of the disasters that may be predicted in the future to minimize financial and personal losses. Presently there are several independent coastal and ocean observing programs in the U.S.; the Harmful Algal Bloom monitoring program, the National Estuarine Research Reserve System, the National Water Level Observation Network (NWLON); and the National Status and Trends Program, to name a few. Because of the fluid nature of the atmosphere, lakes, and oceans they do not abide by geographical or political boundaries. Consequently, efforts in this area must be integrated regionally, nationally, as well as internationally, and the data collected made freely available to the greatest extent possible. A good example is the Integrated Global Observing Strategy Partnership (IGOS), an international partnership for co-operation in Earth observations established in 1998 by a number of international agencies concerned with environmental issues. The Ocean Theme is led by the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), charged with considering the full range of current and planned observations and identifying potential gaps in future observations that might compromise ocean observational records. Institutional structures are being developed to manage the total data flow, the production, distribution and quality assessment of relevant data products, and to work with end-users to ensure that the evolving system is responsive to their needs.
The Great Lakes:
Fresh water is a precious finite resource and about 68% of the fresh liquid surface water is contained in 189 large lakes of the world. About 18–20% of this water is in the Great Lakes. Consequently, about 40 million U.S. and Canadian citizens use the lakes for drinking water and many industries and other business have located in the region because of this plentiful supply. The lakes are a major source of irrigation water, as well as for use of power generation, shipping, fisheries, recreation, and waste disposal. Despite the importance of this resource, relatively little attention has been given nationally and regionally, and funding to deal with serious problems have been limited.
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Including and emphasizing the Great Lakes in legislation dealing with ocean exploration, and coastal and ocean observing systems will benefit the nation as well as the region. Ocean exploration activity will enhance the efforts to inventory and document the resources of the recently established Thunder Bay Marine Sanctuary in Lake Huron as well as resources of the Old Woman Creek Estuarine Research Reserve in Lake Erie. Aquatic resources of the Isle Royal National Park and other federal recreational resources would also benefit from this effort.
Ocean exploration activity should also provide for geophysical surveys to provide data to facilitate preparation of modern updated bathymetric charts for navigation, underwater structures, fisheries, and recreation. Most of the soundings now being used to provide detailed bathymetric charts are old. The most recent surveys were done in the early 1970's and they did not include all areas of the lakes. People making these charts had to use many data from the 1930's and in some instances data from the 1800's! Certainly it would be wise to have new information to prepare updated charts, especially in view of the very low water levels now being observed and the possibility of much lower levels as a consequence of climate change.
We know a great deal about the Great Lakes, but much if not most, of our knowledge comes from sporadic surveys, individual observations, short-term studies, and some monitoring at water intakes. We need long-term monitoring to provide the kinds of data essential to detecting subtle changes in the Great Lakes ecosystem in order to support suitable management of the resources. Such monitoring should be part of a Great Lakes coastal observatory system which would provide a coherent assessment of long term data as well as detect shorter term impacts. Data are needed on trends in water levels that affect property owners, shipping, and fish and wildlife, and the relationship of these trends to climate changes. Monitoring of coastal water quality is essential for public health reasons. For example a recent editorial in the Ann Arbor News stated that more than 100 beaches in Michigan are not regularly tested for bacteria concentrations. Only 12 of 41 counties regularly monitor for E. Coli. Long-term data are needed on fish populations, fish food organisms, ice cover and climate.
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A number of studies have emphasized the need for regional coastal observing systems in addition to the need observed in the Great Lakes region; the National Ocean Partnership Program; NOAA Strategic Plan; and the U.S. Coastal-Global Ocean Observing System (C–GOOS). A Great Lakes Coastal Observing System has been identified as important to the region by the International Association for Great Lakes Research and the International Joint Commission's Council of the Great Lakes Research Managers. Such an observing system will be valuable to federal agencies, for example; EPA, USGS, NOAA, as well as State agencies, academic institutions, counties, cities and towns.
Recent advances now make it possible to develop and implement sophisticated coastal ocean observing systems and state-of-the-art ocean exploration techniques and instrumentation. New sensors are being developed which will allow acquisition of data rapidly and accurately. Acquisition of data which were very difficult to obtain using older time-consuming methods. In addition we have new and better ways to manage data, transmit data, and assess and use data. New technology, such as bio-monitoring systems using bioluminescent bacteria on light sensing computer microchips to detect low levels of toxic material or harmful algal blooms, are being developed. Funding for ocean exploration and coastal ocean observing systems should be used, in part, to enhance capability.
Real-time data acquisition coupled with underwater image links connected to onshore viewing sites have a great potential to enhance public awareness and education. A coastal observing system placed at a marine sanctuary could enable visitors to observe underwater activity in a marine sanctuary and make the resources of the sanctuary a meaningful experience to a wider group of users.
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I would like to thank you for the invitation to speak here today, and I will be glad to answer any questions you may have.
Chairman GILCHREST. Dr. Malahoff.
STATEMENT OF ALEXANDER MALAHOFF, DIRECTOR, HAWAII UNDERSEA RESEARCH LABORATORY, UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII
Dr. MALAHOFF. I am Alexander Malahoff, Professor of Oceanography, director of the Hawaii Undersea Research Lab, and director of the Marine Bioproducts Engineering Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Ladies and gentlemen, the United States of America is surrounded by the oceans. Our country has the world's largest exclusive economic zone. We have the largest Navy, the largest research fleet, and yet, the smallest merchant marine. The oceans are an essential resource to us in our fisheries, oil, and coastal resources. This vast environment of the ocean is also our frontline against any adversary. The oceans are the source of weather and climate. The oceans are the habitats for a spectacular spectrum of life ranging in size and complexity from microorganisms to whales. The oceans are the home for the coral reefs, soft corals, and other complex organisms inhabiting the ocean floor. Submarine volcanoes and mid-ocean ridges form the habitats for exotic life assemblages around the hydrothermal vents which are homes for microorganisms known as extremophiles.
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The oceans will continue to provide us with food and energy and with the resources for a range of entirely new industries. These will be specializing in marine byproducts, pharmaceuticals, and nutracueticals and other derived from exotic micro-organisms, such as extremophiles living around hydrothermal vents. We are a great and resourceful nation. Our future rests upon our competitive advantage in the world. It is based upon our out-of-the-box thinking.
These challenges in our ocean exploration program open up wide avenues for the advancement of all sectors of our society with interest and investment in the oceans. First of all, it invigorates the vision of a new presence for America and our society in the oceans. Secondly, the program offers an opportunity for a different presence in the oceans for America. With new tools, new systems, new observatories, new vehicles such as submersibles, and new sensors applied to these programs, new industries will flourish and a new ocean system industrial niche will develop. Our paucity in the international maritime transportation industry will be balanced by our leadership in the ocean exploration industry.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has taken an effective lead by creating the Office of Ocean Exploration. This has been a bold move toward this new interdisciplinary, inter-cultural, and inter-agency arena. This is a fresh start and will be a catalyst that will enable our nation to take a lead in the holistic understanding of the world's oceans.
This broad thinking will lead to a revival of global expeditions with airplanes, ships, submersibles, satellites, robotic miniaturized underwater vehicles, autonomous observatories, and in situ labs.
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Ladies and gentlemen, America must take the bold, necessary step to regain the U.S. lead on all fronts of maritime technology. The challenge of this new Ocean Exploration is monumental. In our own Hawaiian Island chain, stretching for over 1,200 miles, a home for most of America's tropical coral mass, very little is known about the nature of life of the ocean floor.
How do we begin this task in Hawaii? Much of our work to date has been accomplished in Hawaii through the use of submersibles operated by the Hawaii Undersea Research Lab, one of the six centers of NOAA's National Undersea Research Program. We have been able to do that through the use of submersibles and water labs and our own mother ship in Hawaii.
NURP has made a significant difference toward understanding the oceans and its resources. The undersea research had laid the foundations for the United States to fully explore the undersea environment. NURP has set an example in working through partnerships. For instance, in Hawaii we established a coastal zone and fisheries workshop. We took all of the interested parties from around the Pacific, including of course, all of the U.S. flag islands, and we started looking at broad problems, such as coral reefs, coastal habitats, water quality, coastal hazards and their mitigation, and fisheries. And for instance in the area of fisheries, HURL helped to understand the need for fisheries managers to look at threatened stock.
I believe that these grassroots partnerships are the key to our new out-of-the-box approach to exploration. In order to jump-start our new wave of ocean exploration and take a global lead, we must immediately expand our present capabilities, especially manned submersibles and ROVs and AUVs and ocean floor observatories. With these new metallurgy and new propulsion, and greater sensor capability will recapture our lead in the oceans and the world.
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Core programs such as NOAA's NURP are essential to the accomplishment of the objectives of ocean exploration. And put in with our programs and the Defense Department, the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, those need to be supported. This way ocean exploration will be a cornucopia for a new wave of American knowledge and industry.
And as we say in Hawaii, mahala nue loa. Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Alexander Malahoff follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF ALEXANDER MALAHOFF
Good afternoon Chairman Gilchrest, Chairman Ehlers, Chairman Smith, members of Congress. Members of the subcommittees and staff, ladies and gentleman, Aloha.
I am Alexander Malahoff, Professor of Oceanography, director of the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory and director of the Marine Bioproducts Engineering Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii.
* * * * * * * * * * *
The United States of America is surrounded by the oceans. Our country has the world's largest exclusive economic zone. We have the largest Navy, the largest research fleet, and yet, the smallest merchant marine. The oceans are an essential resource to us in our fisheries, oil resources and coastal resources. Yet, this vast environment of the oceans is also our frontline defense against any adversary. Today, the oceans are much more to us than the traditional area of interest that I have just described. The oceans are the source of our weather and climate. The oceans are the habitats for a spectacular spectrum of life ranging in size and complexity from microorganisms to whales. The oceans are the homes for coral reefs, soft corals, and other complex sessile organisms inhabiting the ocean floor. Submarine volcanoes and mid-ocean ridges form the habitats for exotic life assemblages around hydrothermal vents and homes for microorganisms known as extremophiles. These environments on the ocean floor or lying just below the sea-surface represent sites where life began and then grew into the complex diverse system we know of today. This is a complex interlocking system of life, ranging from the ocean floor and the water above, to the atmosphere above that.
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The oceans will continue providing us with food and energy and with the resources for a range of entirely new industries, specializing in marine bioproducts, pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals derived from exotic micro-organisms, such as extremophiles living around hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor. We are a great and resourceful nation and our future rests upon our competitive advantage in the world based upon our out-of-the-box thinking.
In order to have a meaningful knowledge of this complex system and its potential role in the future well being of the United States and its people, a meaningful plan that has a global perspective of this earth system needed to be put in place. The plan would include a full survey and assessment of the ocean life systems, the effect of ocean chemistry and climate on these systems, and the vast array of habitats on the ocean floor, all viewed from an integrated perspective.
The plan designed to achieve our meaningful knowledge of the oceans came to us in the form of the report issued under the direction of the President entitled, ''Discovering the Earth's Final Frontier: A U.S. Strategy for Ocean Exploration''. The recommendations stemming from the report focus around ocean exploration—exploration with clearly identified goals, objectives and potential benefits. This is an exciting interdisciplinary, inter-cultural, inter-agency program. It lays the groundwork for understanding the whole diverse ocean system and our intimate relationship to this system. In this program, we will look at this system from human habitation on the coasts and islands of the oceans to the hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor. In order to accomplish this, we must systematically map the complete environment. We must establish multi-sensor observatories that will read all environmental data from the coastline to the deep ocean floor. This includes the biology, geology, physical oceanography, and water chemistry of the oceans. We must understand the role, history and impact of humans upon the ocean from pollution to historic wrecks and structures on the ocean floor. We must make this information readily available to educators and environmental, political, industrial and research leaders, so that effective plans for new aquaculture, new ocean industries, and new ocean conservation initiatives can be laid.
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These challenges in our Ocean Exploration Program open up wide, avenues for advancement to all sectors of our society with interest and investment in the oceans. First of all, it invigorates the vision of a new presence for the American society in the oceans. Secondly, the program offers an opportunity for a different presence in the oceans for America. With new tools, systems, observatories, vehicles, and sensors applied to these programs, new industries will flourish and a new ocean systems industrial niche will develop. Our paucity in the international maritime transportation industry will be balanced by our leadership in the ocean exploration industry. The exciting aspect of the Ocean Exploration Initiative will be the challenge of partnerships that would envelope the diverse interests described.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has taken an effective lead by creating the Office of Ocean Exploration. This has been a bold move towards this new interdisciplinary, inter-cultural and inter-agency arena. This is a fresh start and a catalyst that will enable our nation to take a lead in the wholistic understanding of our oceans. This is a critical step for our nation to take and everyone should be behind it.
It is and exciting step because it challenges us to think along a broad intellectual front, yet focus on frontier problems. These could be the survival of coral reefs, or the range in the diversity of microorganisms, or the challenge of open ocean pelagic fishery aquaculture, or the extraction of new pharmaceuticals from organisms living in the hydrothermal vents, or the impact of human presence on our coastlines. This broad thinking will lead to a revival of global expeditions with airplanes, ships, submersibles, satellites, robotic miniaturized underwater vehicles, autonomous observatories, and in situ robotic laboratories. This U.S.-led Ocean Exploration Program will also attract international partners with a dazzling array of ocean observational systems spanning the globe.
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Ladies and gentlemen, America must take the bold, necessary step to regain the U.S. lead on all fronts of maritime technology. The challenge of this new Ocean Exploration is monumental. In our own Hawaiian Island chain, stretching the length of over 1,200 miles, a home for most of America's tropical coral mass, very little is known about the nature and life of the ocean floor north of the inhabited windward islands. The Hawaiian Islands are strategically located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a physical and cultural presence of the United States in the middle of the world's largest ocean.
How do we begin this task in our Hawaii? Much of the work to date has been accomplished in Hawaii through the use of submersibles operated by the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory, one of six Centers of NOAA's National Undersea Research Program (NURP). NURP is a is a comprehensive underwater research program that places scientists underwater, directly through the use of submersibles, underwater laboratories, and wet diving, or indirectly by using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), and observatories.
NURP is primarily a grant program with most of its funding going to the research community, primarily academia. In this program, research quality is ensured by competitive and high standards of peer review. Highest priority is given to proposals for studies in the large lakes, territorial seas, and adjacent waters of the United States. Responsibility for soliciting and supporting the research is assigned to regional Centers: North Atlantic and Great Lakes; Mid-Atlantic; Southeastern U.S. and Gulf of Mexico; Caribbean; West Coast and Polar; and Hawaii and Western Pacific.
The National Undersea Research Program is one that has made a significant difference towards understanding of the oceans and its resources. The undersea research has laid the foundation for the United States to fully explore of the undersea environment. NURP sets an example in working through partnerships. For instance, the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory conducted a workshop of our constituents and Pacific partners in 1997. The Hawaii and American Flag Pacific Islands Coastal Zone and Fisheries Workshop was a resounding success because it effectively addressed the key concerns of the this large region related to: 1) coral reefs, coastal habitats and water quality, 2) coastal hazards and mitigation, and 3) fisheries. In the area of fisheries, for example, it helped HURL to understand the needs of fisheries managers (e.g., NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service) and it aided in the development of partnerships and the leveraging of funding sources to solve such problems as:
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Examine of the effectiveness of 'no-take' marine protected areas.
Evaluate the extent and status of exploited fish resources and the discovery of new resources.
Understand the functional role of habitat in survivorship, growth, and reproduction of managed marine species.
Quantify rates of recovery for habitats impacted by chronic and pulsed fishing activities.
Map and characterize the habitat and biological integrity of benthic communities and reefs at selected continental shelf sites (e.g., marine protected areas) that are inaccessible to usual diving techniques (deeper than 50 meters).
Because of the infrastructure and presence of unique equipment, such as the 220-foot mothership, the R/V Ka'imikai-o-Kanaloa and the 6,800-foot depth capable Pisces IV and Pisces V and ROVs at the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory, discoveries of unique and diverse populations of extremophiles in hydrothermal vents of the pit craters of the submarine volcano, Loihi, were made possible. The extremophiles discovered barely 20 years ago in vents and seeps surrounded by mineral deposits and unique life that exists without sunlight and oxygen, have revolutionized modern scientific theory about the origin and sustenance of life on Earth. Extremophiles are known for their ability to flourish in the world's most harsh environments. These are the organisms whose unique biology holds great potential in biomedical and commercial applications.
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We will need a larger number of ROVs, with better sensor capability, that are suited for a variety of tasks, from the small ones that can explore smaller crevices to large ones that better equipped to do larger tasks and that have the payload capacity to return a variety of samples to the scientists operating from the surface. However, as with the exploration of the farther reaches of space, a greater dependence will begin to be put on AUVs and fixed seafloor observatories. AUVs need to become more reliable, capable of doing a variety of tasks, and capable of larger range. Fixed, or multi-deployable, seafloor observatories of the Aquarius and LEO–15 type also need to be expanded in capability and number to examine, in situ, the processes of such phenomena as deep-sea processes. Such processes include the volcanic evolution of new islands, e.g., Loihi in the Hawaiian-chain, or the dynamics of spreading ridges. These result in the injection of mass and energy into the ocean, and the evolution of new species and resources.
There is an immediate need for an expansion of our present capabilities—manned submersibles, ROVs, AUVs, and seafloor observatories. The key to this expansion will be the development of a new generation of submersibles, such as those capable of going efficiently and safely to the depths of the ocean. No new deep ocean submersibles have been built in the United States during the past 30 years. With new metallurgy, new propulsion and greater sensor capability, the development of better and smaller electrical, acoustical, and optical sensors, and a new generation of deep ocean exploration vehicles should be developed by the United States. Twenty million dollars per vehicle would provide the U.S. with leadership in this field.
The new Ocean Exploration Initiative is an exciting and challenging program for the United States. It will build new industries, educate the citizenry, preserve the environment and open new collaborative partnerships.
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In the technology arena, partnerships between academia, the U.S. Navy, NASA, NOAA, EPA and industry will be forged. A new ocean knowledge base will be established, providing critical ocean information to the U.S. government for defense, resource management, environmental protection and policy and law. The ocean knowledge base will also provide information to coastal developers, states and municipalities, fisheries, oil and ocean mineral industries, and provide the knowledge base for oceanographers and educators.
It is essential that this new venture be fully supported by Congress, that the fledgling Office of Ocean Exploration be fully funded, and that a fleet of new age submersibles be constructed for the exploration of the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans, and the Gulf of Mexico.
Core programs essential to accomplishing the objectives of Ocean Exploration, such as NOAA's NURP should be fully funded and ocean exploration programs in the Defense Department, the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency be supported. States bordering and surrounded by the oceans should be encouraged to join the partnership and U.S. industry should be encourages by government to take a lead in the development and manufacture of instruments, vehicles, systems, observatories, data processing and information technology. This way, Ocean Exploration will be a cornucopia for a new wave of American knowledge and industry.
Panel III Discussion
Chairman GILCHREST. Thank you, Dr. Malahoff. I do not speak any Hawaiian so I can say aloha when you leave. Thank you very much, gentlemen. Mr. Ehlers.
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Mr. EHLERS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A few questions. First of all, Dr. Beeton, I just wanted to express my appreciation to you for the great work you did in Michigan for so many years on the Great Lakes system, which I think is a very important aquatic system. And you served well and long and we really appreciate the work.
Dr. BEETON. Thank you. I——
Chairman GILCHREST. Would the gentleman yield just for a quick comment. Dr. Beeton came to my office when I was first elected to Congress to start helping me understand NOAA. So, Dr. Beeton, good to see you and thank you for all of the work that you do.
Dr. BEETON. Thank you.
Mr. EHLERS. I think you educated a lot of Members of Congress. I have a question. In your testimony you mentioned the Great Lakes could benefit from a NOAA exploration initiative to help chart and map the lakes. I am just in a sense asking an administrative question. Would it not work better for that to happen through NOAA's national ocean service which is responsible for charting and mapping coastal areas or——
Dr. BEETON. Well, the way I look at it, the ocean exploration activity is something that should—NOAA should be key player in. And the—NOS, National Ocean Service, that has charting capability and so on will be part of that. So I——
Mr. EHLERS. So you are assuming they would both work together——
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Dr. BEETON. Yes.
Mr. EHLERS. Okay.
Dr. BEETON. So I think that is where the activity should be.
Mr. EHLERS. Okay. Dr. Weller, I am a physicist and I do not understand the ocean current chart you displayed. I have seen it before. What mechanism is there that keeps it going more or less uniformly in the same place? What behavior in a liquid with the current that is in between would make it so stable, relatively stable?
Dr. WELLER. Well, it is the distribution of the density. And the density is set by temperature and salinity. In the high North Atlantic we have a unique condition in which we expose the sea water there to extreme, strong cooling. And the sea water starts out fairly salty normally. So as it cools, it gets more dense and it sinks. Now as the water moves down through the interior of the ocean, mixing rates are slow and the flow is driven by the pressure gradient set up by the spatial differences in density. And those are fairly stable. Those evolve, you know, down away from the surface of the ocean where the atmosphere mixes it. Things evolve slowly. So down even 1,000 feet, change year to year is very slow. And that penetration, and we can track it by looking at freons and things, that takes many years for that water to move down.
But the key is that it starts with that getting denser. And the key is that the atmosphere creates these spatial differences in density and drives the flow.
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Mr. EHLERS. I understand that. But what I do not understand is how you—it goes down, curls, circulates all up into the Pacific, turns around and comes back. That is a rather intricate pattern of motion. Obviously, there are forces changing direction of the motion—movement of the currents.
Dr. WELLER. Well, you know, it would be—if in your bathtub, say, at home you took two immiscible fluids, you know, a blue one and clear one, different densities. Now let us find the fluid that is at a density in-between those two.
Mr. EHLERS. Which is a lava vent.
Dr. WELLER. Right. And so down by the drain of your bathtub you pour that fluid in. It will sink initially to the density, you know, in-between——
Mr. EHLERS. I am not worried about the sinking——
Dr. WELLER [continuing]. Spread out.
Mr. EHLERS [continuing]. Working—I am worried about working all the way across.
Dr. WELLER. Sure. Once it sinks, you know, it has more fluid coming behind it, there is a pressure head, it will then spread out at its normal density. The ocean is stratified from top to bottom with light to heavy. So water sinks to where it finds its own density and then it can't move up or down because it will move against density. It moves sideways.
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Mr. EHLERS. Yeah. Why does it not go out in all directions rather than circulating——
Dr. WELLER. Well, then the physics of the earth's rotation come into effect.
Mr. EHLERS. So is it a Coriolis force?
Dr. WELLER. It is. It is Coriolis. It is what as an oceanographer we call geostrophic. It is a balance between the density created pressure gradient and the Coriolis Force due to the earth's rotation.
Mr. EHLERS. Okay. Still hard for me to understand how it would—you know, I am used to dealing with one or two particle systems. It is hard for me to understand how that flow is so uniform. Okay. Another question, Dr. Weller. It was one I asked earlier of Mr. Gudes. And that was the role of polar orbiting satellites program in ocean observation. And was that—was the decision to go ahead with this made in cooperation with the various members of the research community interested in this? And is it an optimum program, is it going to provide you the data that you need and want for your work?
Dr. WELLER. You know, it is a landmark decision. NASA flies research satellites. They have proven that they can be a great value to oceanography. We do not yet have an operational oceanographic satellite program. This marks the transition. To be honest, not all oceanographers believe that the optimum sensors have been chosen. But this is moving forward. Operationalizing satellite observations for oceanography. It is forward progress. We need to maintain a dialogue now to optimize it.
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Mr. EHLERS. I see. And do you see it meshing well with the ARGO program?
Dr. WELLER. Oh, it fits extremely well with the ARGO program. One of the key measurements is altimetry which is measuring the height of the ocean as the density of the temperature and salinity patterns vary and the height of the ocean varies. ARGO gives you the information about temperature and salinity, its profiles. Take it together with this height measurement, and you can infer this geostrophic flow that we were just talking about. So satellites plus ARGO, you get the global circulation.
Mr. EHLERS. And just another quick one. I am not sure if you are the one who mentioned about putting measuring instruments on ships?
Dr. WELLER. Yes.
Mr. EHLERS. Are we doing any of that now and is there any reason we cannot do it on all ships?
Dr. WELLER. We are just—we have a standard program under the weather service with a too small investment. Very simple instrumentation. NOAA Office of Global Programs has pilot projects in the Atlantic and the Pacific to test the value of improved meteorological measurements. Other countries are doing it. We are proving the value. We should move forward. And since those ships are routinely out there for their own purpose, we should instrument them.
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Mr. EHLERS. And is there any possibility of trying to fill in the gaps by contracting with commercial airliners to simply have a device on them that would drop meteorological instruments every hundred miles as they are flying across the ocean? We have a vast network of air traffic, too. That could be——
Dr. WELLER. That—it is probably going to be difficult to work out the airplanes dropping. But there is a plan from one of the NOAA research labs to have globally orbiting balloons. You know, several people have tried——
Mr. EHLERS. Yeah.
Dr. WELLER [continuing]. To fly around the world in these balloons. The plan is to have large balloons that circumnavigate. And they drop ocean probes as they pass over the oceans.
Mr. EHLERS. All right. I yield back.
Chairman GILCHREST. Thank you, Mr. Ehlers. Mr. Barcia.
Mr. BARCIA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I, like my colleagues from Michigan, want to thank Dr. Beeton for his fine work in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Not only in terms of the research you have done as it relates to the Great Lakes Basin, but of course your expertise in the issues effecting our ocean systems throughout the world.
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Dr. Beeton, I just have one question for you. And I would just like to say that I am interested in learning more about your proposal for a Great Lakes Coastal Observatory System. You recommend including and emphasizing the Great Lakes in legislation dealing with ocean exploration and ocean observing systems. Could you gives some examples of what is needed? Also, could you give some benefits to the region and the nation from a Great Lakes Coastal Observatory System? And finally, how would you structure such a system and how much funding do you think would be required to support it? I know it is a lot of questions but if you could—in a general——
Dr. BEETON. Well, fortunately, just recently I was in Ann Arbor talking to the people at the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. And they have been thinking about a system that could be actually a mobile observing system that could be put in place, for example, in the Thunder Bay Marine Sanctuary. That not only would provide observations insight to the sonar and TV camera networks and so on. So it would provide—and other kinds of sensors, biological and chemical that would provide data to people in universities. But also to Federal agencies like EPA, NOAA, U.S. Geological Survey and so on. But it would have a link to the shore so that visitors to the marine sanctuary could actually then see something of the marine sanctuary.
I mean, the marine sanctuaries are great but for a lot of people that might want to come and visit, what are they going to see. The shore and some water. And so if we have an underwater observation system that would greatly enhance their learning and the outreach activity to educate them. And so this is one of the things that has been proposed. In fact, this proposal ought just been sent forward to NOAA headquarters as a possible thing to be funded.
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So those are some of the things that we are thinking about.
Mr. BARCIA. Any idea what the cost involved might be, a ballpark figure?
Dr. BEETON. No. Because I think this is really at the concept stage. And, you know, I think it might be inappropriate to try to put some kind of a figure on it until people really sat down and looked at it and got some hard data.
Mr. BARCIA. Thank you.
Chairman GILCHREST. Thank you, Mr. Barcia. Mr. Abercrombie.
Mr. ABERCROMBIE. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I regret that I could not get here earlier. But I want to commend you for just working on this joint hearing.
I want to in particular, I think you know, welcome Dr. Malahoff who is a good and dear friend. And I want to say a valued colleague in the sense of our interest in what I call innerspace. We have devoted a good portion of the national budget, Mr. Chairman, for some period of time now to outer space. And we have not managed to put the same kind of emphasis, in my judgment, on inner space on our own planet. Inner space taking up, if I—if Dr. Malahoff's instructions to me are correct, about j of the surface of the planet.
Now in that regard, if I could be granted an opportunity to ask Dr. Malahoff about his testimony, and some of this may have been covered. But I hope I can provide some emphasis. If you look at page four of your testimony, Dr. Malahoff, you talk about—in the second paragraph about the immediate need for expansion of our present capabilities. Manned submersibles, ROVs, AUVs and sea floor observatories. And there is a picture over here of the LEO–15, that kind of thing. There is a whole spectrum operating here. You indicate as well, and I am reading this just in case you were not able to read all of it during the portion of your testimony. No new deep ocean submersibles have been built in the United States for the past 30 years. And then you go on to recount new metallurgy, new propulsion, greater sensor capability has allowed for the development of better and smaller electrical acoustical and optical sensors. And a new generation of deep ocean vehicles should be developed.
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My question to you is, in relation then to the last sentence of that paragraph, $20 million per vehicle would provide the U.S. with leadership in this field. Is that $20 million a figure that is drawn from some hard research with respect to specifications, et cetera? And $20 million, does that mean ROVs, AUVs, sea floor laboratories? Just exactly what does the $20 million refer to and how hard is the data that comes up with that figure?
Dr. MALAHOFF. Yes, sir, Congressman. It is submersibles. It is based upon the cost of building the Mire's that are now in Russian hands. And it is based upon my current estimate of building similar submersibles here in the United States.
And I envision perhaps five of these vehicles being distributed throughout the areas of interest in the United States. Including, of course, one based in Hawaii so we could cover the central and tropical Pacific Ocean.
Mr. ABERCROMBIE. Dr. Weller has provided, and I expect that you must have before you, have you seen this particular publication——
Dr. MALAHOFF. Yes.
Mr. ABERCROMBIE [continuing]. I expect entered in the record. Is it not, Mr. Chairman?
Chairman GILCHREST. We will enter it into the record right now.
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Mr. ABERCROMBIE. If you will. It is Volume 42, number 1.
Chairman GILCHREST. Without objection, so ordered.(see footnote 2)
Mr. ABERCROMBIE. Thank you. The reason I bring it up is that, and maybe I can ask Dr. Weller to comment, the picture on the front is a rendering. This is obviously not a photograph. Is that right, Dr. Weller?
Dr. WELLER. That is correct.
Mr. ABERCROMBIE. And it is a rendering because this vehicle has not been built yet?
Dr. WELLER. That is correct.
Mr. ABERCROMBIE. And it—I have it here at either the ABE2 or the ABE2.
Dr. WELLER. Early versions of ABE, an autonomous vehicle, have been built.
Mr. ABERCROMBIE. Okay. When you say they have been built, are they presently able to be utilized or are they models?
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Dr. WELLER. No. They have started to do scientific research.
Mr. ABERCROMBIE. And how would this vehicle relate to what Dr. Malahoff has in his testimony? What would be the relationship in his testimony about the immediate need for these new ocean submersibles, ROVs, AUVs, sea floor laboratory—observatories?
Dr. WELLER. One of the things that is difficult for oceanographers to do is to do the equivalent of a mapping mission, say, from a plane. How do you go down and get a—essentially, a snap shot, synoptic picture of features or processes. It would be very difficult to do. If we took a ship out and we dropped, say, core profilers or instruments at spots. And moving the ship as we heard earlier, they move very slowly. But if you could go out with the ship and lower a vehicle like that and send it on its mission to fly a radiator pattern, it could accomplish those sort of mapping missions very effectively.
Mr. ABERCROMBIE. Would that not be useful for the security interest of this nation as well?
Dr. WELLER. Well, in my judgment, mapping things like routes along which submarines transit would be very valuable.
Mr. ABERCROMBIE. So would it not be a useful procedure for us to meld in this instance Department of Defense research capabilities and funding, and the scientific side of it, a kind of dual technology, if you will, or a dual purpose technology?
Dr. WELLER. I agree completely. A lot of the observational tools we are talking about have many applications. Mapping features on the bottom for geological studies is not that much different than trying to find and detect buried mines on the bottom.
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Mr. ABERCROMBIE. Would there be in your—or any of the members of the panel, are there now presently institutional repositories in the Department of Defense with which you could usefully connect?
Dr. GRASSLE. Yes. As Bob Ballard mentioned, a lot of the new technology has come from the Navy. I might mention though specifically with regard to ABE, the—that came out of a group that—the group that first discovered hydrothermal vents. And thinking about how we were going to explore the mid-ocean ridge system. And the concern was that it is 40,000 miles long. And we needed to explore it on a number of different scales.
And the idea for ABE was that we could not afford to be there with a ship and a submarine to go and look more than a few sites along the ridge on any one trip. And so the idea was to have an autonomous vehicle go out and go back and forth continuously and mobile one, as Bob refers to it, and get a continuous coverage that is not only the geological features but the—but the life on the sea floor.
And there is another such vehicle which also was developed at Woods Holes called REMUS, which you will see in the LEO picture. It was actually developed as a coastal vehicle, REMUS. But it is being used by the Navy to have continuous coverage of a kilometer square in shallow water. And it is now being adapted for deep sea use with Navy support.
Mr. ABERCROMBIE. Mr. Chairman, thank you for your indulgence in the questions. Would it be useful, or I would like to suggest in conclusion that perhaps under auspices of even the joint committee to include—joint committee auspices rather, to include perhaps the Armed Services Committee.
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Chairman GILCHREST. We were—we attempted to do that for this hearing. But scheduling did not——
Mr. ABERCROMBIE. The schedule——
Chairman GILCHREST [continuing]. Future hearings.
Mr. ABERCROMBIE. Well, whether hearings or not, I certainly hope that perhaps we could work together to try and see if we could not come up with a proposal for the scientific community, particularly the under—Dr. Beeton's—or perhaps with Dr. Beeton's assistance to empower the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to work with the Department of Defense and other appropriate research entities in academia to come up with a comprehensive proposal for undersea research, or what I would—again, I am going to prefer to call inner space research. That would involve the various resources of the United States Government to back up the academic side that is obviously well represented and incredibly professional and prepared right now. Do we have a proposal?
Chairman GILCHREST. I think one of the purposes of this hearing today, we had Admiral Cohen from the Navy here earlier along with Curt Weldon. Is to—and that is an excellent idea. And that is what we are pursuing.
Mr. ABERCROMBIE. Wonderful. Well, I appreciate that, Mr. Chairman. I am sure under your vigorous leadership we will be able to accomplish that.
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Chairman GILCHREST. And Mr. Ehlers and yours.
Mr. ABERCROMBIE. Yes, of course.
Chairman GILCHREST. Thank you, Mr. Abercrombie. We will finish up with just—I have just a few questions for the panel.
I would like to go back to an earlier question Dr. Ehlers raised about ocean currents, Dr. Weller. I found your explanation fascinating. This living organism seems to sustain itself by a pretty complex, interesting mechanical structure, I guess if you take the parts apart. What would you say it would take for the ocean currents to stop or change or be reversed? Would it be a traumatic event, would it be a slow cyclical event, period of cyclical changes, would it be global warming. What would it take? Or have the ocean currents been different in the past and, therefore, the climate been different?
Dr. WELLER. In the paleo-oceanographic record looking at, say, pollen or tree rings and things coral, we do know that in the past the ocean circulation, that conveyor belt picture that I showed, has stopped. That is what we call the shutdown of the thermal-haline circulation. The sort of change you can expect is—can be a rapid change. The temperature in Western Europe could change 20 degrees Fahrenheit in ten years. In fact——
Chairman GILCHREST. Colder or warmer?
Dr. WELLER. Colder. Europe, because of this poleward heat transport of heat in the North Atlantic is anomalously warm for the latitudes it is at, so in ten years it could be much cooler.
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Chairman GILCHREST. Would the equatorial regions be a lot warmer then?
Dr. WELLER. They would—yes. There would be a rebalancing. And in fact, as you worry about global warming I hope you would consider that we have now started on an oceanographic experiment. We are heating the earth's surface. We are heating the ocean. We are melting the ice caps. We are doing two things at the poles that will shut down that sinking process. We are letting loose very light fresh water at the poles.
Chairman GILCHREST. You say it has been that way in the past?
Dr. WELLER. It has, yes.
Chairman GILCHREST. The current has shut——
Dr. WELLER. Yes.
Chairman GILCHREST. What would cause it to shut down, a shift in climate?
Dr. WELLER. A shift in climate, yes.
Chairman GILCHREST. I guess in the past that shift in climate has been a natural shift that occurred over a longer period of time than the potential change we are seeing now?
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Dr. WELLER. No. In the paleo-climate record there are times when the climate has changed almost as rapidly. If you go back and you recreate the temperatures, say, in the Atlantic Ocean, say, in the Younger Dryas—there were times when temperature changed within a decade, say, ten degrees. The changes——
Chairman GILCHREST. Now that change in temperature occurred within ten years rapidly.
Dr. WELLER. Yes.
Chairman GILCHREST. But the reason that the ocean currents stopped, was that just as rapid or was that a slow process?
Dr. WELLER. It is a slow process in the sense that I showed you the conveyor belt and the water moves down slowly. But what you could have, say, you could have a series of years where the winters in the North Atlantic are milder. It is not cold, ice is melting. Each winter for a succession of winters, perhaps five winters, you have successively each winter pushed down into that intermediate layer less of that water. And that——
Chairman GILCHREST. So the ocean, the current, the flow actually stops?
Dr. WELLER. Yes.
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Chairman GILCHREST. So does that mean that the ocean bottom current stops? Does that mean the Gulf Stream, for example, would not be moving?
Dr. WELLER. You know, we can go to models to answer your question. And then you have to ask if—how faithful the models are. I mean, the simple answer to your question is yes. If we change that temperature and salinity distribution at the source, we then change all the currents that depend upon the dynamics of being driven by density differences.
Chairman GILCHREST. Is there some idea about what that temperature would have to be in order for that to happen? Some of the predictions by the IPCC are as much as four or five degrees, six degrees or more Fahrenheit over the course of a century? Would that be enough to cause this current to stop? And then I guess if it stops the Northern Hemisphere gets colder, the equatorial regions get warmer?
Dr. WELLER. There is the potential that the pathway we have embarked upon as indicated by the IPCC can cause this. The United Kingdom just put 20 million pounds into research and observations to study the possibility that there will be an abrupt shutdown of the circulation.
Chairman GILCHREST. Mr. Ehlers?
Mr. EHLERS. If the gentleman would yield. But is not there a positive feedback loop if it gets colder in the Northern Hemisphere then once again the water will start sinking and become more dense and start this all over again?
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Dr. WELLER. You are right.
Chairman GILCHREST. How fast does that happen?
Mr. EHLERS. So you could get an oscillatory——
Dr. WELLER. You could get an oscillatory behavior. The remarkable thing is that the past 10,000 years of climate have been very stable. I think of concern is can we push it out of being stable and enter one of these oscillatory patterns.
Chairman GILCHREST. But if it oscillates, what is the time frame for that? We move into a period where the ocean stops, the current.
Dr. WELLER. Right.
Chairman GILCHREST. Then like Vern said, it gets real cold in the Northern Hemisphere. And then that could start it back again. You said the change in climate could happen within 10 years. Does reversing that happen within 10 years?
Dr. WELLER. I can't answer that. You know, what I should do is I should look at the papers that use the paleo-oceanographic record to recreate sea surface temperatures. And I should send you a figure, say, that contrasts many thousands of years of temperature, Bermuda versus Greenland, and write you a little note about the answer.
Chairman GILCHREST. Thank you. I guess that was not part of the description of what we wanted you to testify on when you came. Just briefly, I know it has been a long day for everybody. But, Dr. Grassle, can you comment on the mid-Atlantic Long-Term Ecosystem Observatory Program you are now involved in just 15 meters of water? Is that just along the New Jersey coast?
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Dr. GRASSLE. Yes.
Chairman GILCHREST. Does that extend beyond New Jersey?
Dr. GRASSLE. I do not know whether you can see the two graphics, but the one is for the middle part of the Jersey coast, which is a 30x30-kilometer area served by bottom cables buried in the sediments that provide profiling systems to get the vertical measurements, salinity, temperature, depth, chlorophyll, light, back-scatter of particles. Also, we have autonomous vehicles that go out and make measurements. The REMUS vehicle I referred to before. But the new instruments that we are using more frequently are the gliders, which are like ARGO floats but they can be redirected by radio.
Chairman GILCHREST. Is part of the reason you are doing this type of observation to see the impact on the ocean of coastal activity?
Dr. GRASSLE. Yes. But it is to understand the relationships among organisms in the ocean to calibrate satellite information on chlorophyll and other pigments. And for the coastal ocean so that we will get that information from the coastal environment all around the country.
Chairman GILCHREST. Do you know of anybody else that is doing something similar to that?
Dr. GRASSLE. There is nothing quite this intensive. But there are similar efforts in a number of places. The State of Maine has embarked on a system like that. I think Al mentioned that there is interest in that sort of system in the Great Lakes. There is work with high-frequency radar, long-range high-frequency radar which is very important. And we are the first to have continuous measurements on that, but there are also systems at Oregon State and at the Navy Post-Graduate School——
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Chairman GILCHREST. Is the data collected from those systems compatible?
Dr. GRASSLE. Yes. We have made an effort to go around and talk with one another and come up with uniform standards and protocols because that is so important for developing the National Ocean Observing System.
Chairman GILCHREST. In the areas where these—where you placed these monitors or where they are being studied, how did you choose other than 15 meters the places to collect the data?
Dr. GRASSLE. We started because we had a laboratory that was situated in an inlet.
Chairman GILCHREST. Oh.
Dr. GRASSLE. It is a Coast Guard lifeboat station. And when the Institute of Marine Coastal Sciences was started we wanted to make long-term measurements in our coastal region. And these need to be interdisciplinary measurements involving all the scientists, and the starting point is to get the circulation in the coastal ocean through time.
And we find, for instance, the primary productivity, the shape of it in the ocean varies. But there are discrete bodies of primary productivity that had not been seen before. There are coastal jets of water which are chock-full of chlorophyll. There is a circulation driven by small-scale upwelling that also are places where there are hot spots of primary production.
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These features were known before we had an observing system that was continuous in time and this fine scale spacially.
Chairman GILCHREST. Sounds fascinating. Mr. Abercrombie, any other questions? Mr. Ehlers? For the sake of time——
Mr. ABERCROMBIE. Excuse me, Mr. Chairman. I probably—a question to both chairmen. I realize what you said was difficult to put something together logistically with Armed Services. But might we—might I inquire as to what your intentions are with respect to perhaps coming up with a recommendation on these areas in the time frame? Maybe we could do some kind of study to put this together even in this budget, if it is possible. I would certainly be—volunteer to work with you to try and accomplish that task. I guess that is what I am trying to put forward.
Mr. EHLERS. Well, let me just repeat something I said earlier in the meeting. Through hearing Congressman Weldon's testimony, I sent him a short note suggesting a way in which we could engage in this activity in this Congress. And he sent back a shorter saying, good idea. Let us work on it. So we will talk to you about that and——
Mr. ABERCROMBIE. I have great admiration for Congressman Weldon's commitment in this area. And I would certainly try to work with him and with you to accomplish that.
Mr. EHLERS. Yeah. It is both his energy and his intensity in working on it is very good. So we will try and see what we can do.
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Chairman GILCHREST. But we were hoping an increase in the military budget, about 80 percent of it would go to ocean research——
Mr. EHLERS. Yes.
Chairman GILCHREST [continuing]. And exploration.
Mr. ABERCROMBIE. I am for that.
Chairman GILCHREST. We are going to make that recommendation. We will keep the record open for members to submit follow-up questions to any of the witnesses for, I guess, a period of as long as we want, I supposed. But we could do it for five days. But I want to thank the witnesses again for your testimony. It has been very helpful. The topic is fascinating. And we hope to continue this dialogue for some time to come. The hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 4:45 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
Appendix 1:
Panel I Biographies, Financial Disclosures, and Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
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ANSWERS TO POST-HEARING QUESTIONS
Responses by the National Science Foundation
1. Great promise has been demonstrated in living marine resources for pharmaceuticals, but the track record of human exploitation shows it has not been done in the most sensitive or sustainable manner. What are the risks of exploring for marine resources without a framework to guide actions?
As a science agency, NSF's involvement in identifying living marine resources is done within a research context. The kind of exploration and research activities supported by NSF are unlikely to threaten a species or ecosystem. On the contrary, these activities promote understanding of them and better enable conservation. Activities that may occur subsequent to exploration, such as exploitation for commercial purposes, clearly could produce adverse impacts if not done in a sustainable manner. Agencies with resource management responsibilities can better speak to the ''exploitation'' issue.
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2. How successful has the NOPP been?
The National Ocean Partnership Program (NOPP), enacted in 1997, has been successful in a variety of areas. Primarily, it fosters the exchange of information and facilitates cooperation between key players in ocean research and education on an ongoing basis, and helps to identify areas of mutual interest and to create common solutions. In addition to encompassing relevant federal agencies with ocean responsibilities, NOPP activities include members of the academic community, industry, and other members of the ocean science community.
In its first few years, NOPP funding has enabled significant headway in technology development (ocean environmental sensors and their platforms). Under the auspices of NOPP, agencies and the ocean community have laid out plans for a U.S. ocean observation system and established a coordination office (OCEAN.US). Also, funding was provided for a data assimilation and modeling consortia to enable societally relevant modeling of key oceanographic parameters. NOPP activities have provided an excellent start for expanded interagency coordination and collaboration; NOPP is developing a virtual ocean data system that will encourage uniform data handling and dissemination, a vital activity requiring participation by multiple partners. In the area of education, NOPP partners have seen tremendous success with its support of the National Ocean Sciences Bowl competition for high schools, and with other community-based K–12 educational activities.
3. What would be the role of the UNOLS fleet in this new program for exploration and observation?
Well-equipped and capable research vessels will be needed in any effort to explore and observe the oceans. The research vessel fleet, which offers some of the most advanced capabilities presently available, will continue to enable the exploration of our oceans. In addition to the vessels themselves, UNOLS ships are able to deploy Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and the ALVIN, one of the foremost manned submersible in the world and the U.S. workhorse for exploring the deep ocean floor and hydrothermal vent systems.
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A planned new system of seafloor observatories and sensor packages attached to mobile floats and gliders moving through the ocean waters would greatly facilitate the exploration of our oceans. The UNOLS fleet has a key and long-term role to play in servicing these autonomous systems. With the ALVIN and many of the research vessels approaching the end of their design lifetimes, the Federal Oceanographic Facilities Committee of NOPP is preparing a long-term plan for fleet renewal.
4. You highlight the relatively long-running Ocean Drilling Program, which provided extensive information on sedimentary strata and the earth's crust. In light of other priorities mentioned by the President's Ocean Exploration Panel and the other witnesses today, should this program be maintained, or the resources applied to other priorities? Could we find out just as much about the earth's crust from the private sector through cooperative agreements or other means?
The fundamental operations of the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) should be maintained. Scientific ocean drilling continues to provide the sole means for sampling the 70% of the Earth that lies beneath the ocean. Research efforts include:
Integrated studies of global geochemical cycling, from creation of new ocean crust at mid-ocean ridges to consumption back into the mantle. A new emphasis in future years will be to penetrate the seismic zone beneath island arcs to study the processes responsible for large, destructive earthquakes.
Acquiring a global array of drill holes to examine the evolution of the global environment, particularly changes in ocean and atmospheric circulation and chemistry that have controlled biologic evolution and global climate change.
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The deployment of new instrumentation in boreholes to quantify the magnitude and role of fluid circulation through sediments and crust, measure its impact on the extent of the deep biosphere, and determine its roles in the formation of gas hydrates and hydrocarbons.
A future phase of scientific drilling, the proposed Scientific Ocean Drilling Program (SODP), envisions an expansion of exploration beneath the oceans made possible by increasing drilling capability, from the single-ship operation currently in use to a multiple-drilling platform operation of the future. The new drilling, sampling and observing capabilities would allow scientists to conduct experiments and collect samples in environments and at depths never before attempted.
The fundamental research and exploration questions examined by scientific ocean drilling are much broader in scope than those addressed by offshore drilling for the private sector oil, gas and mineral industries. The focus of these industries is on specific sites where economic returns can be obtained rather than scientific advancement. The ODP and IODP scientific, technical, planning and management groups actively include industrial liaison members to ensure industry interests and capabilities are included in program operations.
5. Should there be a specific capitalized program to develop new technologies for ocean exploration and observation, providing incentives and seed money to encourage the public and private sector to get involved in development? Such a program would be similar to the Hybrid Automobile Partnership and the Advanced Technology Program at the Department of Commerce.
Continued and enhanced investments are required to implement the technologies needed for cutting-edge ocean exploration and observation activities. A variety of models exist that would encourage private sector involvement in technology development efforts. At NSF, we have extensive experience with preparing program announcements or requests for proposals that announce basic requirements and encourage private sector participation.
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NSF has not been significantly involved with either the Hybrid Automobile Partnership or the Advanced Technology Program. However, in the Hybrid Automobile Partnership, the requirements of the desired product are known at the outset. In an ocean observing system, technology development and the conduct of research must go hand-in-hand. History shows that activities carried out at the frontiers of knowledge evolve in unexpected ways. Development of the technology exclusively at the start of an activity almost guarantees the construction of instrumental dinosaurs. Technology development must proceed in parallel with the activity and be driven by the continuously changing needs of the activity.
6. The observation system you all talk about is primarily for the physical environment. What are the practical applications of applying this new stream of data to the management of biological species? How would this information ultimately support the management of resources through an understanding of such things as primary productivity, fish stocks and marine pollution?
The observation system discussed would gather data on physical, chemical, geological and biological characteristics of ocean and coastal waters. While physical sensors are currently more advanced than their chemical and biological counterparts, NSF and NOPP are funding numerous efforts to develop appropriate chemical and biological sensors for the future observation system. This extended suite of sensing capabilities will provide a comprehensive and interdisciplinary view of dynamic processes occurring in the ocean to better support sustainable management of resources. NSF strongly endorses the concept that all the characteristics of the ocean must be studied and evaluated simultaneously to eventually predict biological production, including fish stock variability.
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7. The Western Pacific is a huge area. What are the critical monitoring projects or observations that should occur in the Western Pacific, particularly with the importance climate change and sea level rise has to the region?
Enhanced regional measurements, such as those in the Western Pacific, are important but must be done in the context of global measurements. Key monitoring projects or observations important to the understanding of climate change and sea level rise in the region include:
a repeat global hydrographic survey following up on the one initiated under WOCE (World Ocean Circulation Experiment) and JGOFS (Joint Global Ocean Flux Study) to tie down the multi-decade trend;
maintenance of the ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) observing system including NOAA's tide gauge network, the TAO (Tropical Atmosphere Ocean) array, and surface drifters;
continuation of high precision altimetry measurements conducted by NASA as well as GRACE (NASA's Gravity mission), which is critical to determining absolute sea surface height; and
distribution of profiling floats (e.g., ARGO) and high resolution XBT (Expendable Bathythermograph) lines to provide measurements of temperature and salinity structure in the upper kilometer.
A global data assimilation system is necessary to capitalize on the data produced by increased observations. Estimating Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO), a NOPP-funded project supported by ONR, NSF, and NASA, assimilates data on ocean circulation and climate on global and basin scales. In addition, NSF, under the Information Technology Research priority area, is supporting a project to develop a modular ocean data assimilation system with application in coastal and tidal models.
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ANSWERS TO POST-HEARING QUESTIONS
Responses to Questions from the Honorable Robert Underwood
Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, U.S. Navy, (Retired); President, Consortium for Oceanographic Research
1. What would be the role of the UNOLS fleet in this new program for exploration and observation?
The UNOLS fleet will have a key role in the implementation of any ocean exploration or ocean observation program. The UNOLS fleet has excellent capacity and capability to support such endeavors. If an observation system is funded, UNOLS ships will be involved in deploying and maintaining system assets, as well as supporting expanded research efforts tied to the new system. UNOLS currently is working on a recapitalization plan because several mid-sized vessels are reaching the end of their planned service lives. The Federal Oceanographic Facilities Committee (FOFC), a subcommittee of the National Ocean Research Leadership Council (NORLC), is in the process of finalizing this plan and CORE members have provided information and comments. The plan (which is now in draft form) will include an assessment and analysis of UNOLS vessel support for current operational observation systems and discuss how UNOLS could support a larger, integrated coastal and ocean observing system.
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2. What Federal assets are available through the Department of Defense to support ocean observation and exploration? Sharing what has been done with the military and civilian satellite program and the opening of access to SOSUS array data, are there any other areas where science might benefit from former and current defensive technologies to achieve cost savings in building a civilian ocean observing capability?
Examples of Department of Defense (DOD) assets that could contribute to ocean observation and exploration include the following:
Underwater SOSUS arrays can be used for some observational purposes and over the horizon radar has been used to look at sea surface currents off the coast of Maine. While such systems provide useful information, they are expensive assets that will require sustained investments.
In the past, DOD submarines were used for Arctic research because they are capable of surfacing under the Arctic icepack, however, the last of these have been taken out of service.
Navy survey vessels currently contribute unclassified data to NOAA for weather and hurricane prediction and that data can be used to complement data collected by an integrated coastal and ocean observing system. In general, data collected by the Navy for both atmospheric and ocean forecasting is being made available to a wide range of federal and private sector users.
Supercomputer facilities, such as the Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center, host sophisticated operational coupled air-sea models and could provide a key framework for assimilation of information from an ocean observing system.
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The Office of Naval Research (ONR), through the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP), has provided funding for pilot observing systems and development of technology for systems such as Argo and autonomous underwater vehicles.
3. You mention the wide variety of benefits we might get from the oceans based on exploration and observation. How do you foresee moving the information gathered and analyzed to actual utilization?
The NORLC established OCEAN.US in May of 2000 to serve as the integrator of ocean data. OCEAN.US is charged with the integration of long-term, routine, consistent observing systems for research and operations in the following areas:
Detecting and Forecasting Oceanic Components of Climate Variability
Facilitating Safe and Efficient Marine Operations
Ensuring National Security
Managing Marine Resources
Preserving and Restoring Healthy Marine Ecosystems
Mitigating Natural Hazards
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Ensuring Public Health
OCEAN.US currently is working to define the architecture for an integrated ocean observing system and the NOPP agencies are working on developing a virtual data hub so that observations can be cataloged and dispersed to agencies and organizations that need the information in real time. With proper funding and support, the initial systems architecture will be completed in the coming year. We envision the operational control of the observing system will require some form of virtual operations center joining all of the current agency operational authorities in a combined data net with a small central coordinating office.
4. How successful do you feel NOPP has been?
NOPP has an outstanding record of achievement for a program that is barely four years old. NOPP efforts have resulted in $57 million being invested in national priority areas in the ocean sciences. This research investment is based upon the pooled NOPP expertise and provides a 'super-agency' capability to integrate agencies to ensure funding for the most pressing research in the most coordinated and efficient manner. ONR currently provides the largest annual NOPP contribution, followed by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NOPP issues an annual report to Congress detailing program activities. The latest report for FY 2001 is located on the CORE website at: http://www.COREocean.org/NOPP01report.html. CORE provides administrative support for NOPP.
5. Please explain OCEAN.US.
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OCEAN.US is essentially a joint program office under the direction of the NORLC. It will integrate requirements and serve as system architect for a national ocean and coastal observing system. OCEAN.US is supervised by a subcommittee of the NORLC and is charged with overseeing the implementation of long-term, routine, consistent observing systems for research and operations in the areas listed above. The office's primary goal is to develop the initial framework for an integrated system that is efficient and cost-effective and includes common data standards and protocols for all users. The strong interagency commitment to its success is demonstrated by the interagency Memorandum of Agreement signed by the following eight agencies: NOAA, ONR, Oceanographer of the Navy, NSF, NASA, Minerals Management Service, United States Geological Survey, Department of Energy, and United States Coast Guard.
6. Should there be a specific capitalized program to develop new technologies for ocean exploration and observation, providing incentives and seed money to encourage the public and private sector to get involved in development? Such a program would be similar to the Hybrid Automobile Partnership and the Advanced Technology Program at the Department of Commerce.
There is a fairly robust market for small firms to make specialized equipment for ocean exploration and observation, however, most instruments for such activities are currently built in university and federal labs and these companies are 'spin-offs' from these institutions. Large-scale deployment of an observing system should lure private sector capital into the ocean technology market and result in private sector competition to build the instruments needed for a large-scale observing system. As an example, Japan is currently the world leader in the deployment of such systems and most of the state-of-the-art instrumentation for ocean observing systems is being developed by Japanese companies as a result of the Japanese government making an ocean observing system a national policy priority.
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NOPP provides one successful federal process to encourage development of technologies for both ocean exploration and observation. For example, the current ARGO buoy program is the result of a NOPP demonstration grant. However, the oceanographic community has expressed two concerns with the NOPP process. First, the federal investment in NOPP must be increased substantially in order to ensure adequate progress in the areas of technology development, testing pilot observing systems, and data management. Second, the NOPP program must be broadened to provide for the transition of successful pilot programs and experimental technologies into operational applications.
7. The observation system you talk about is primarily for the physical environment. What are the practical applications of applying this new stream of data to the management of biological species? How would this information ultimately support the management of resources through an understanding of such things as primary productivity, fish stocks, and marine pollution?
Sea surface and ocean water column temperatures as well as physical chemistry have profound effects on fish stocks and primary productivity so there is an immediate benefit from the improved understanding of the oceans physical processes. El Niño and La Niña events have demonstrated that physical changes in the ocean climate (in the case of an El Niño, the warming of the eastern equatorial waters) result in some fish stocks such as anchovies disappearing as well as smaller salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest. We are just starting to recognize that changes and shifts in regional climate regimes can have profound effects on fisheries management issues and in the future we will need to incorporate climate events into fisheries management decisions. Thus, an ocean observing system that can assess and identify subtle changes in climate can be a useful tool in the management of biological data.
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It also is important to recognize that an ocean observation system is a platform that can be used to deploy many different advanced biological sensors as they become available. Just as the Department of Defense has many weapons platforms that can deploy different weapons for different missions, so too can an ocean observing system deploy different sensors to examine and address more regionally specific issues with regards to biological species. Sensors that are aimed specifically at productivity issues can be deployed in regions of the system where productivity is a key issue and similarly, sensors that applicability to specific fish stocks can be located where they are most needed. A similar argument applies to monitoring and managing the effects of marine pollution.
8. The Western Pacific is a huge area. What are the critical monitoring projects or observations that should occur in the Western Pacific, particularly with the importance climate change and sea level rise has to the region?
As a former commander of the 3rd Fleet with responsibility for the defense of the Pacific sea approaches to the United States, I understand and appreciate this question more than most. Observational priorities must be established with international partners and clearly the Tropical Ocean-Global Atmosphere Tropical Ocean Atmosphere (TOGA–TAO) array is an example of scientists from many nations working together to address critical observational gaps. While the TOGA–TAO array has been an enormous success in helping to predict El Niño events, we must recognize that there are vast areas of the Western Pacific that are never sampled in situ. Satellites can aid significantly in improving our understanding of the Western Pacific by making observations over a wider area, however they are severely limited in their ability to 'peer' into the ocean. It is for this reason that an in situ ocean observing system is crucial for the Western Pacific. Such a system is absolutely essential to determine the heat content and physical circulation, as well as the chemical and biologic processes of the ocean. Additionally, satellite ocean surface data requires in situ monitoring sites for calibration.
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Clearly, we should remain committed to maintaining and expanding the TOGA–TAO array, as well as extending our monitoring to both northern and southern mid-latitudes. Such deployment would allow us to broaden our understanding beyond El Niño and study other decadal ocean cycles that determine both our short-term and long-term climates. We should also consider seriously the deployment of observing systems into the Arctic and Antarctic regions of the Western Pacific as these regions are the 'tripwires' for the most sensitive climatic changes. Many believe that changes in climate will most likely be apparent first in the more sensitive regions of the world. The logical priority in deploying an ocean observing capability would be first to populate those areas that can readily determine the precursors to changes in climate.
Next Hearing Segment(3)
(Footnote 2 return)
See ''Oceanus'' in Appendix 4.