Abstract:
NORPLAX Shuttle Experiment is historical digital data set DSI-9936, archived at the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). In the early 1970s the North Pacific experiment (NORPLAX) was begun as part of the International Decade of Ocean Exploration. It was based on the ideas concerning the large-scale interactions of ocean and atmosphere and the use of these relations and teleconnections in
... long-range forecasting. The shuttle experiment conducted between Hawaii and Tahiti from January 1979 to June 1980 was designed to observed the changing equatorial ocean structure and circulation, to study the variations and interactions of the four major equatorial ocean currents, and to develop a scientific basis for their monitoring by simple observations of thermal structure and sea level. The program consisted of 15 monthly cruises between Hawaii and Tahiti along three meridians. The first five cruises were made by the R.V. Gyre of Texas A and M university and following ten cruises by the R.V. Wecoma of Oregon State University. Additional temperature sections were obtained by an air-expendable bathythermograph (AXBT) along the same three meridians. Thirty of the flights were by Navy P-3 aircraft and five were by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) aircraft. This unique data set provides the user detailed information of the four- dimensional thermal structure of the equatorial Pacific between the seas surface and 1000 m from 20 degrees North to 17 degrees South along three longitudes (150 degrees, 153 degrees, and 158 degrees West) over 16 months. It is complemented by measurements of salinity, oxygen, and nutrients and by direct current measurements. 
