WOCE

World Ocean Circulation Experiment

Completed


Type of Structure: program
Regional Scope: global
Parent Organisations: WCRP.WCP, .ICSU, .IOC
Child Organisations:
Duration : 1990 to 2002 COMPLETED
Contact Address: no office contact defined

holding an official function in WOCE

General information and objectives

WOCE was initiated in 1990 jointly with ICSU's Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO to study the circulation of the global ocean, in particular, decadal and longer time-scale phenomena including the deep ocean. The observational phase of WOCE will continue until 1997, and the program will be coordinated with the newly initiated CLIVAR project (WMO, 1992a). WOCE will analyze important climatic functions of the ocean and develop ocean models capable of predicting climate changes resulting from both natural and anthropogenic causes. Specifically, WOCE will study (WCRP, 1991, see below):
  • large-scale fluxes of heat and freshwater and their annual and interannual variability;

  • the dynamic response of global ocean circulation to changes in surface fluxes;

  • components of ocean variability on timescales of months to years and on spatial scales from a few thousand kilometers to global;

  • rates and nature of formation, ventilation and circulation of water masses that influence the climate system on time scales from ten to 100 years.

    These critical issues are addressed within three Core Projects (WCRP, 1991, see below):

    Core Project 1 is designed to provide global descriptions of the circulation of heat, fresh water and chemical tracers; the formation and modification of water masses; and the statistics of ocean variability. It combines, for the first time, satellite measurements of the global surface wind field and sea-surface topography with full-depth measurements of global ocean circulation using high-precision hydrography, chemical tracers, moored current meters, current-following drifters at the ocean surface and neutrally buoyant floats at one deep depth.

    Core Project 2 focuses on the special features of the Southern Ocean circulation that are of particular importance in climate prediction (e.g., Antarctic Circumpolar Current; loss of heat to the atmosphere south of the Circumpolar Current; deep-water formation).

    Core Project 3 is an in-depth study of the Atlantic Ocean at a sampling level that is not possible globally even for so large a program as WOCE. The work in the Atlantic can allow model improvements that can be extended to the global ocean. This work emphasizes measurements of circulation over the full ocean depth and its time-dependent response to surface forcing. Additional experiments will examine processes of particular importance to climate modelling, such as diffusion across density surfaces or the subduction of surface waters.

    A number of WOCE data centers devoted to particular data sets are being established by nations as part of their contribution to WOCE. All WOCE data will be available within two years of measurement and permanently archived at the World Data Centers.

    source: WCRP (World Climate Research Programme), 1991: WOCE: World Ocean Circulation Experiment .




    Last update: 5/6/22
    Source of data: ProClim- Research InfoSystem (1993-2024)

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