The size of the South Pacific and Indian oceans and the sparseness of the shipping routes makes a concerted attack on this region a daunting task although the drifting and profiling buoys offer some exciting new possibilities. Accordingly, the feasibility of making major advances is judged to be somewhat less at this time. Some small field programmes are being planned. The modelling and data analysis activities associated with the extended ENSO studies of NEG-1 and the Upper Ocean Panel are extending into the high latitude Pacific. Some aspects of this Principal Research Area may be addressed through G1.
Historical data are few.
This latter point makes it all the more important for some sustained activity in the area. The regular re-supply of the Antarctic research stations offers good opportunity for annually repeated observations along particular longitudes. This activity has been under way in nations and within the WCRP since the beginning of 1990s and has contributed to both the 1990 and 1995 IPCC assessments. It encompasses development of techniques and databases to both detect climate change and determine whether part of those changes can be attributed to human activities. The latter requires definition of a climate signal to be expected from modelling studies.