The World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE)

The World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) is a global oceanographic res earch program concerned with long-term variability in ocean circulation and property distributions and their relation to climate. Its goals are to dev elop models useful for predicting climate variability on time scales longer than seasonal to interannual, and to collect the data from the global ocea n necessary to test them. Using a variety of instrument platforms, some dev eloped specifically for the program, researchers in around 30 nations have been sampling a suite of ocean variables since 1990. The data will be used to establish an ocean climatology of the 1990s and will form the basis of b oth new models of ocean circulation and coupled models of the ocean and atm osphere. This paper presents a brief overview of WOCE research, including e xamples of the technological advances that have greatly contributed to the program. Also discussed are some of the recent advances in modeling and the link between WOCE research and future programs.