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Article: Drift-nets for data. (using oceanography to study climatic changes)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- May 16, 1992
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1992 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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LOOKED at from space, the earth is largely a tranquil blue, smeared with a few swirling clouds. On the surface, it is a wet and windy place. The oceans rage as powerfully as the atmosphere. Their stirrings, though, are poorly understood. Compared with oceanography, weather forecasting is an exact science.
This might seem surprising, since the two disciplines have a lot in common. They are both concerned with the behavior of large bodies of thinly spread fluid. The difference is that whereas the oceans cover 70% of the planet's surface, the atmosphere covers 100% of it, including the bits where people live. That means people are interested in the weather. ...