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Scientific Objectives of the Joint Environmental Data Analysis (JEDA) Center:
Research into interannual and decadal change in upper ocean
temperature over the global ocean is important because of the possible
threat of global warming in response to the anthropogenic increase in
greenhouse gases of the atmosphere during the past century
(Schlesinger, 1991). The magnitude of this natural variability needs
to be determined for comparison with expected anthropogenic changes
predicted by climate models. Furthermore, such endeavors will
elucidate components in the integrated heat budget of the North
Pacific and North Atlantic oceans in support of research goals. The
latter addresses a long-standing question on the relative intensity of
heat transported from the tropics to the middle latitudes by the
ocean, as compared to that transported by the atmosphere (Trenberth
and Soloman, 1993).
A principal objective Tropical Ocean-Global Atmosphere (TOGA) research
program of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) is to describe and understand climate and global change well
enough to allow its prediction (International TOGA Project Office,
1985). This depends upon being able to determine the thermodynamical
mechanisms responsible for ocean-atmosphere coupling leading to ENSO
and decadal changes. A principal objective of the World Ocean
Circulation Experiment (WOCE) of the National Science Foundation
(NSF) is to describe and understand annual and interannual changes in
the heat budget of the global ocean (World Climate Research
Programme, 1986). Both WOCE and the Atlantic Climate Change (ACC)
program seek to determine whether this meridional oceanic transport
of heat varies significantly from year-to-year. Realization of these
objectives requires a global observing system be constructed that can
provide the necessary in situ observations for upper ocean
temperature (Joint Oceanographic Institutions, 1991).
Website: "http://jedac.ucsd.edu/index.html"
[Summary provided by JEDA.]
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