North Pacific Experiment

...The group was comprised mainly of American marine scientists, with some European and Japanese scientists also participating, and its main pillars were research on environmental characteristics, environmental forecasting, seafloor assessment, and biological resources, with several research projects being carried out under each of these. The main ones are: (1) the North Pacific Experiment (NORPAX), which investigates the impact of oceanographic changes on long-term climate change; (2) the Geochemical Ocean Sections Study (GEOSECS), which investigates the distribution, movement, and chemical changes of chemical substances in seawater; (3) the Coastal Upwelling Ecosystem Analysis (CUEA), which aims to elucidate the upwelling ecosystem and establish the basis for fisheries resource development; (4) the Mid Ocean Dynamics Experiment (MODE), which pursues the basic dynamic mechanisms of the ocean circulation; and (5) the International Southern Ocean Studies (ISOS), which understands the ocean circulation structure in the Antarctic Ocean, the properties of seawater, and the distribution of substances in seawater. The distinctive features of these projects are that they focus on large-scale phenomena, that they aim to understand the essence of marine phenomena rather than to achieve immediate results, and that they are experimental projects that set up hypotheses and then verify them.

*Some of the terms mentioned in the "North Pacific Experiment" are listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…アメリカの海洋科学者を中心に，ヨーロッパや日本の科学者も一部参加し，環境特性，環境予報，海底アセスメント，生物資源の研究をおもな柱とし，その下におのおの数個の研究計画が実施された。そのおもなものは，(1)気候の長期変動に与える海洋変動の影響をさぐる，北太平洋実験North Pacific Experiment(略称NORPAX（ノルパツクス）)，(2)海水中の化学物質などの分布，移動，化学変化などを調査する，大洋横断地球化学研究Geochemical Ocean Sections Study(略称GEOSECS（ジオセツクス）)，(3)湧昇生態系を解明し漁業資源開発の基礎確立をめざす，沿岸湧昇生態系研究Coastal Upwelling Ecosystem Analysis(略称CUEA（キユーエー）)，(4)海洋大循環の基本的な力学機構を追求する，大洋中部力学実験Mid Ocean Dynamics Experiment(略称MODE（モード）)，(5)南極海の海洋循環構造，海水の性質や海水中の物質の分布等を把握する，国際南極海洋研究International Southern Ocean Studies(略称ISOS（アイソス）)，などである。これらの計画を通じた特色は，大規模現象を対象とすること，即効的な効果をねらうよりも海洋現象の本質の理解をねらっていること，仮説を設けその検証を行う実験型計画であることなどである。…

※「北太平洋実験」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報