Program News

Physical Oceanography

In the past year, the Program has received about 180 proposals spanning a broad range of ocean science topics for consideration by the May 2000 and November 2000 panels. Amongst the proposals recommended for funding at the May panel, we had a good number of laboratory studies on mixing, coastal flows, and geophysical fluid dynamics. There seems to be growing interest in the community in the study of abyssal flows and their interaction with topography as well as linkages between polar and sub-polar oceans and linkages between the sub-tropical and tropical oceans. The Program continues to see a number of proposals dealing with near-shore processes. Each panel considers several interdisciplinary proposals; for example, from the May 2000 panel, two proposals have been jointly funded by the Physical and Biological Oceanography Programs.

The bulk of the proposals that the Program receives and funds involve single investigators or small numbers, typically 2-4, of collaborators. However, the Program also tries to maintain the capacity to absorb larger research collaborations where the science warrants a combined effort. An example might be a project that involves 5-10 investigators bringing several techniques to bear on a particular problem of high scientific interest. Since the budget for such an effort may reach as high as $5M to $8M over five years, the Program can usually only accommodate one such project every year or two. Because they involve a reasonably large commitment of resources, such proposals usually receive very detailed scrutiny from the mail reviewers and panel.

The Program is always delighted to see adventurous proposals. From discussions with investigators at meetings and during site visits, we sometimes get the impression that the review process is perceived as being very conservative. We suspect that our review panelists would not describe themselves as conservative. Our experience has been that, like most of the community, what excites our panelists most is interesting and innovative science. The Program feels that funding such science is its main objective.

The Program is beginning to see science proposals that involve the use of new instrumentation, such as moored profilers and gliders, as primary observational tools. To begin to meet the demand for moored profilers, the Division of Ocean Sciences has funded a small Moored Profiler (MP) instrument pool at WHOI. This is intended as a community resource and follows the example of a somewhat larger Ocean Bottom Seismometer pool recently funded by the Division. It is anticipated that requests to use these instruments will be made as part of regular science proposals and that the distribution of MPs will be scheduled after funding decisions have been made, rather like the ship scheduling process (though much more informal). As demand warrants, the Division may provide funds to add more instruments to the pool. Potential users of moored profilers are encouraged to contact WHOI directly for information on the logistics associated with deploying and recovering MPs and information on the associated costs that should be included in proposals. Further details can be found at http://hrp.whoi.edu/mprof/mpintro.html. The Program hopes that the OBS and MP pools will provide models for how other types of instrumentation with a wide range of potential applications, both new, such as gliders, and old, such as traditional moorings and floats, can be made available to the community in an efficient and readily accessible manner. Scientists and institutions wishing to explore instrument and resource pools further are encouraged to discuss their ideas with the Program.

CLIVAR News

After several years of hard work, the U.S. CLIVAR Science Steering Committee and its implementation panels have written implementation plans for the three regions of higher priority to the U.S.: the Pacific and Atlantic sectors and the Pan-American region. The cornerstones of these plans are the Pacific Basin Extended Climate Study (P-BECS), the Atlantic Climate Variability Experiment (ACVE), and the Pan-American Climate Study (PACS) respectively. The primary interest of the Physical Oceanography Program is to start implementing the extra-tropical aspects of the P-BECS and ACVE plans beginning with the February 15, 2001 target date. The rationales are to encourage synergy with the SEARCH (Study of Environmental Arctic Change) program and the developing ocean carbon cycle research program, and to complement the emphasis on the tropics of NOAA’s Office of Global Programs. The assumption is that the Argo program, a key element of a global ocean observing system, will be implemented separately as NOAA’s contribution to the National Ocean Partnership Program in coordination with international partners.

For more information about the U.S. CLIVAR program, please contact Dr. David Legler, the director of the U.S. CLIVAR Project Office (legler@usclivar.org) or check the CLIVAR web site: http://www.usclivar.org/index.html.

On a related topic, we would like to encourage interested physical oceanographers to actively participate in developing plans for ocean carbon research with their biological and chemical oceanographer colleagues. As mentioned in the Spring 2000 newsletter, several efforts are underway which focus on different aspects of the problem like the role of the biological and solubility pumps, the carbon flux between the ocean and atmosphere, the role of continental margins, and long term changes in carbon inventories. For more details on these planning efforts, please read the Chemical Oceanography Program description.

WOCE News

The AIMS phase of WOCE is winding down. Scientists interested in submitting to the February 15 and August 15, 2001 target dates should use the existing program announcement (NSF 97-88) as guidance for their proposals. We anticipate that the final WOCE conference will be hosted by the
U.S. in the Spring/Summer of 2002.

Personnel News

We anticipate that the current staff will remain in place for the coming calendar year, but will be looking for new rotators in 2002. Anyone interested in giving something back to the community by serving a one-or two-year tour in the Physical Oceanography Program is encouraged to contact Dr. Eric Itsweire for more information.

Eric Itsweire (eitsweir@nsf.gov)
Steve Meacham (smeacham@nsf.gov)
Bill Wiseman (wwiseman@nsf.gov)
Jeannie Belsches (jbelsche@nsf.gov)