Technology, Instrumentation and Measurement Systems
From its inception U.S. GLOBEC has acknowledged that its program-focusing
on the coupling of physical processes to biological processes in ocean
ecosystems at local to global scales-faces the problem of inadequate
data. Existing data (and sometimes the instruments) are often
inadequate (and inappropriate) to answer the questions posed by U.S.
GLOBEC. Even were the data good, too often the biological and physical
data are collected over different time and space scales, and
satisfactory coupling cannot be achieved. Toward this end U.S. GLOBEC
has held three meetings on the subject of new technologies, releasing
three reports on the broad topics of molecular techniques, acoustics,
and optics. They appear as U.S. GLOBEC reports Nos. 3, 4, and 8 (GLOBEC
1991, 1991, and 1993, respectively). Several research programs dealing
with new technology are presently being conducted by U.S. GLOBEC
supported investigators. There is little doubt that U.S. GLOBEC field
studies will have to make use of these state-of-the-art technologies and
methods more efficiently, and that this represents a significant
technology-transfer problem that will have to be addressed. One way
that education and training of scientists-on state-of-the-art
technology, advancements in coupled biophysical modeling, or database
and data management issues-could be accomplished is through targeted
workshops.
An ultimate goal of the U.S. GLOBEC program is to provide the scientific
foundation upon which a large-scale operational monitoring/modeling
system can be pursued for a selected set of marine ecosystem variables.
It is not clear whether existing technology can provide such
global-scale monitoring. Some quantities connected to ecological
processes in the ocean are already monitored on a global scale.
Satellite sensors have provided new views of the ocean surface, both in
terms of temperature and pigment distributions, but also of large scale
flow dynamics, wind fields, and mesoscale variability. Perhaps remotely
sensed data, to the extent that those readily measured parameters (e.g.,
chlorophyll) covary with plankton biomass, can provide equally exciting
information about animal distributions. For example, remote detection
of oceanographic fronts is already useful to fishermen. To accomplish
this general objective however, we will need to continuously measure
animal abundances and distribution-perhaps using a sparse global array
of moored (or drifting) telemetering acoustic sensors-and integrate this
data with remotely sensed variables by efficient data assimilation into
appropriate models. This last type of monitoring will require advances
in some technological aspects, in particular, data transmission and
processing, and sensor interpretation.