THE HAWAII OCEAN TIME-SERIES (HOT) PROGRAM - BACKGROUND, RATIONALE AND FIELD IMPLEMENTATION

Long-term ocean observations are needed to gain a comprehensive unders tanding of natural habitat variability as well as global environmental change that might arise from human activities. In 1988, a multidiscip linary deep-water oceanographic station was established at a site nort h of Oahu, Hawaii, with the intent of establishing a long-term (> 20 y ears) data base on oceanic variability. The primary objective of the H awaii Ocean Time-series (HOT) program is to obtain high-quality time-s eries measurements of selected oceanographic properties, including: wa ter mass structure, dynamic height, currents, dissolved and particulat e chemical constituents, biological processes and particulate matter f luxes. These data will be used, in part, to help achieve the goals of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) and the Joint Global Oce an Flux Study (JGOFS) research programs. More importantly, these data sets will be used to improve our description and understanding of ocea n circulation and ocean climatology, to elucidate further the processe s that govern the fluxes of carbon into and from the oceans, and to ge nerate novel hypotheses. These are necessary prerequisites for develop ing a predictive capability for global environmental change. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd