What were the aims of WOCE?
WOCE was one of the principal projects of the World Climate Research Programme. It was the first attempt to survey the oceanic circulation globally over a brief period, aiming to collect a data base to support the development of the global eddy-resolving ocean circulation models for use in climate research. Such models became feasible during WOCE as computer power increased. WOCE also studied the inherent variability of the ocean during the 1990s. The WOCE data set will form a high quality baseline against which future and past change can be assessed. The goals of the experiment were laid out in the Science Plan and the projects origins are described in Chapter 1.3 of the book “Ocean Circulation and Climate – Observing and Modelling the Global Ocean”. WOCE also aimed to identify cost-effective methods of monitoring the ocean. Two immediate legacies are the data from altimeter satellites and the growing array of Argo profiling floats.
