The ocean general circulation, its space-time variability, associated transport properties of the ocean and their climate relevance.
Present work is focussed on ocean modeling and ocean state estimation.
In the future increased emphasis will be placed on other data sets especially the WOCE hydrography and float measurements. Observational studies are based primarily on satellite altimetry, but take also into account traditional data. Increased attention is put on sea surface temperature and surface salinity fields and their relation to surface fluxes of heat, freshwater and momentum as well as to interior ocean dynamics.