Contact:  Jeanne Kouhestani                     FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                                                1/24/96

NOAA Ship MALCOLM BALDRIGE Completes Around-the-World Cruise to Research Global Climate Change

After successfully completing a year-long scientific expedition to gather critical data on the ocean's role in global climate change, global warming, and the El Nino phenomenon, the MALCOLM BALDRIGE, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research ship, has returned to the United States.

This feat -- involving nine U.S. institutions and six foreign countries, and covering 58,000 nautical miles -- marks the first time in the Commerce Department agency's 25-year history that a NOAA vessel has circumnavigated the globe on a scientific voyage.

"This research will provide a sound scientific base for understanding ocean-atmosphere exchange processes and their effects on climate and climate change in the Atlantic, Indian, and Equatorial Pacific oceans, as well as abundance, diversity and distribution of marine organisms in the Arabian Sea," said NOAA Corps Captain Craig S. Nelson, commanding officer of the ship.

"In some cases the data will be used to establish baseline measurements to which future measurements can be compared," Nelson said. "For example, high altitude ozone samples collected during this cruise were some of the first comprehensive ozone measurements ever taken over the western Indian Ocean. They will help determine how far north the Antarctic ozone hole now extends, and give a basis for comparison in the future."

     Following are highlights of the cruise:

Global Climate Change.  As part of the international World
Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE), NOAA scientists did around-the-
clock sampling and analysis of deep-ocean temperature, salinity,
oxygen and velocity measurements to study the interrelationships
among ocean currents, the atmosphere, and world climate.  Thirty
satellite-tracked drifting buoys were released to map the near-
surface circulation in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea that changes
seasonally in response to the southwest monsoon.  These buoys are
tracked by NOAA's Global Drifter Center in Miami, Fla., and their
data are also used for global weather forecasting.


     Researchers also sampled the massive coral outcroppings in the
Seychelles, which will be used to reconstruct the most recent 500-
year climate history in the region.  This may reveal new information
on year-to-year, decadal, and centennial changes in the global
climate system.


Living Marine Resources.  As part of the U.S. Global Ocean
Ecosystem Dynamics (GLOBEC) project, on separate legs of the cruise,
scientists used a variety of sampling gear to study how coastal and
open-ocean upwelling generated by the seasonal monsoon system of the
Indian Ocean affects the abundance, distribution and diversity of
marine organisms, and how these organisms respond to the dramatic
seasonal reversal of the monsoon system.
  

     Researchers also collected new information on more than 600
different schools of marine mammals, documented patterns in seabird
abundance and distribution, sampled nearly 500 specimens of flying
fish, and sighted more than 30 marine turtles hundreds of miles out
to sea.  


Global Warming.  Throughout the voyage, scientists conducted
underway sampling of carbon dioxide, which will be used to determine
the influence of the ocean on the concentrations of carbon dioxide
in the atmosphere, as part of the Ocean-Atmosphere Carbon Exchange
Study (OACES).  They also performed baseline measurements of total
carbon and carbon dioxide in the Indian Ocean to map the source and
sink regions for carbon dioxide.


     Continuous underway sampling was also conducted to map the
distribution of atmospheric aerosols and pollutants as part of the
Radiatively Important Trace species (RITS) project.  Weather
balloons were used to sample and map the distribution of ozone in
the upper atmosphere.


El Nino.  The ship deployed or repaired 20 surface buoys in
the 63-buoy Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) array that monitors
ocean-atmosphere interactions in the tropical Pacific Ocean.  The
real-time data generated are used to forecast global weather as well
as to improve our ability to understand and predict the El Nino
phenomenon in the tropical Pacific Ocean and its effects in
modifying the world's climate. 


     The MALCOLM BALDRIGE was part of a coordinated international
expedition that included other vessels of the U.S. academic and
foreign research fleet.  All of the shipboard research was
coordinated by the scientific programs.  The logistics of the
research done aboard the BALDRIGE and management of the vessel was
handled by the NOAA Corps.


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