providing for the first time three-dimensional characterizations of thunderstorms in sufficient time and space detail to resolve the interdependence of thunderstorm dynamics, microphysics, and electrification. Preliminary data analysis suggests researchers are on the threshold of important new information about thunderstorm mechanisms. The NSF, in cooperation with other agencies and with Congressional support, plays a major role in supporting the development of new instrumentation, cooperative, multi-group field programs, and data analysis in this important area of basic research.

The large VHF radar systems have the potential to measure wind vectors, wave motions, and turbulence at altitudes from 1 to 100 km on an essentially continuous basis. These systems provide extremely fine time resolution of winds through the troposphere, stratosphere and mesosphere. Possible interconnections between terrestrial weather and solar activity, and applied topics such as the dispersion of pollutants to the upper atmosphere will be addressed with a much better chance for success if the promise of this technique bears fruit. The technique could form the basis of an operational network to gather wind data at a much higher frequency than practical with existing instruments. The NSF is providing funds for constructing the prototype system near Chatanika, Alaska; NOAA is providing the manpower. A qualitatively new capability has been made available to measure auroral plasma velocities and electric fields, with time continuity and simultaneity over a broad latitude span. This has been accomplished by the addition of a 150-foot diameter fully steerable antenna to the Millstone Hill radar, Westford, Massachusetts. Data collected to date with this newly upgraded facility are already extending the understanding of both solar control and atmospheric effects of these circulation patterns.

A group of Colorado State University scientists under the direction of Dr. Thomas vonder Haar have developed an extremely fast and efficient way to process very large amounts of cloud and radiation data observed by geosynchronous satellites orbiting the earth. At the present time, data on solar energy received by the earth and that portion of it that is reradiated back to space is transmitted by two geostationary satellites, but these data must be stored for future analysis because present computers cannot process the data fast enough to permit "real time" analysis. The new technique enables the data to be processed in batches, a method so efficient that the computer can handle the data as fast as they are received from the satellites. The technique thus allows for the first time, the monitoring of inbound and outbound radiation and the computing of net radiation budget on a continuous 24-hour basis. The locations of prevailing winds and currents, the intensity and tracks of storms, and the occasional shifting of the circulation patterns, producing anomalous weather and climate, all depend upon the geographical and temporal distribution of incoming and outgoing radiant energy. A precise knowledge of the radiant energy budget and its changes is an essential ingredient of numerical models of climate and climatic change.

As events of this past summer have again shown, hurricanes are among the most destructive weather phenomena experienced in this country. Professor William Gray of Colorado State University has been examining the detailed structure of "cloud clusters"--intense tropical storm regions of organized, deep vertically developing systems using the NCAR Cray I

computer.

One of the enigmas in hurricane forecasting is the fact that cloud clusters occur frequently, but only relatively few develop into hurricanes.

Professor Gray has concluded that the strongest influence on hurricane development is the rotational structure of the tropical environment in which the cluster is moving. Large-scale rotation is a quantity that is routinely forecast in numerical models with acceptable skill. Therefore, Gray's finding has the potential of improving the capability of predicting hurricane development.

Again in the area of atmospheric sciences research there is a melding between individual researchers and major research facilities, the radars, the LDAR, and the computer. In budgeting for these efforts we try to think of the people and the centers as a system for problem solving.

Activity in the area of ocean sciences is providing insights into some very fundamental processes of ocean physics and geophysics. Last year the refurbished deep submersible Alvin was deployed, along with the mother ship, Lulu, to the East Pacific Rise, off the west coast of Mexico. On one of the early dives, a field of natural pipes, or hydrothermal vents, jutting upward from the sea floor was observed. Hot dark plumes of liquid were flowing at 10 meters per second from beneath the bottom into the surrounding colder water. As the hot jets mixed with the bottom water the dissolved materials were precipitated onto the sea floor as sulphides of iron, copper, zinc, and manganese. The temperatures measured at the vent openings were as high as 350°C. The precipitation mechanism appears possibly to be the funadmental process of forming metal sulphide ores. The rich mineral deposits serve as the basic food for a wide variety of marine animals, some previously unknown to science, that dwell in great profusion near the vents, living by the release of chemical energy rather than by using the products of photosynthesis.

The Ocean Sciences Division also is supporting the Sea-Air Exchange Project (SEAREX) in the vicinity of Eniwetok Atoll in the Central Pacific.

Several interesting facts have been discovered. Mercury occurs in the atmosphere as a gas. Its concentration at Eniwetok varies widely from day to day. Observations suggest that mercury is injected into the ocean by rainfall and returned to the atmosphere from the sea as volatiles. The observations also detected a cloud of dust whose origin was determined to be the Asian Continent. This is the first known arrival of such particles at this low latitude. Finally, the observations show that the concentrations of non-marine derived metals is much lower at Eniwetok than are the same material concentrations in Hawaii, which is some five hundred miles farther north of the equator. These results bear directly on matters such as air pollution, climate change, and depletion of stratospheric ozone.

Once more the importance of the relationship between scientists and major facilities is evident from these examples of research in oceanography. There has also been major progress in the earth sciences arena. The Consortium for Continental Reflection Profiling (COCORP) is a continuing project that uses deep seismic reflections to study the continental crust. The area east of the Appalachian Mountains (the Piedmont) was found to contain an extensive layer of flat-lying sedimentary rocks buried beneath the metamorphic crystalline rocks of the surface. The discovery has important implications for the origin and development of most major mountain ranges. It also highlights a region of the United States that has the potential for hitherto unsuspected fossil fuels.

Dr. G. J. Wasserburg, Cal Tech, recently reported that in the past year there have been remarkable advances in the earth sciences through application of neodymium isotopic variations resulting from the decay of a radioactive samarium isotope and the chemical separation of samarium and neodymium in nature. The technical advances over the past decade have

resulted in the application of new methods to old problems in the earth sciences and this has provided major advances in solving classical problems. It has also led to the definition of new and fundamental questions which urgently require answers. Using this technique

it is possible to date basic and ultrabasic igneous rocks ranging in age from 100 million years back to 4.6 billion years. This development is important in determining the geological history of the earth. In addition, the isotopic studies have shown that water from different oceans is readily distinguishable by direct measurement of neodymium in the ocean water or in deep sea sediments. This will now permit a study of the flow between oceans, both present day and in the past--facts important in the history of climate. Plutonium and neodymium behave very similarly geochemically so that using these methods there is now also an opportunity to predict the transport of man-made radioactive plutonium to the environment by studying the transport of naturally occuring neodymium which is non-toxic; this discovery has important implications concerning ocean pollution.

The Deep Sea Drilling Program (DSDP) will continue in FY 81, utilizing the drill ship Glomar Challenger. Challenger has already drilled in more than 500 locations in most of the major ocean basins of the world. The data that have resulted from analysis of the drilling cores retrieved from these sites have been most important in supporting the theory of plate tectonics. The cores have also contributed and will continue to contribute to our knowledge of past climates and other paleontological information. Challenger has one distinct limitation. She cannot drill in areas that might contain hydrocarbons or geopressures, since she has no well control equipment

and has no riser. Based on recommendations from the earth sciences community we have been seeking a means to drill in such locations. I will return to