From: 	rweller@whoi.edu[SMTP:rweller@whoi.edu]
Sent: 	Tuesday, March 21, 2000 1:33 PM
To: 	Fairall, Christopher
Cc: 	rweller@whoi.edu
Subject: 	Re: FW: Proposal to remove radar from the Brown

Chris:

   NOAA is embarking on a new climate agenda.  With the great advances they
have made
in equipping the Ron Brown, in operationalizing the TAO array, and in
providing the core
support for the entry of the United States into CLIVAR, they are well
positioned to do so.

   Ckimate studies require both dedication and committment to do long-term
measurements
well and that ability and committment to do the process studies esssential
to enabling
improved understanding and modeling.  As equipped, the Ron Brown is the
premier platform
in the world for carrying out air-sea interaction process studies critical
to following through
with a balanced climate agenda.

   There is no alternative to the fully (with radar) equipped Ron Brown.

    Removal of the radar from Ron Brown would do irrepairable damage to
programs
counting on that platform for process studies in the eastern tropical
Pacific and in other
regions.  Removal of the radar would also be seen as a very visible
faltering in
NOAA's efforts to pursue a comprehensive climate agenda.

    It is essential that Ron Brown continue in operation with its complete
compliment of
sensors.  So equipped, the ship is looked to as the center piece of many future
studies in support of improved understanding of air-sea coupling, of cloud
processes,
of rainfall over the ocean, and of sub-100 km scale variability in the
atmosphere.
The detailed time series collected on Brown together with the spatial map
provided
by the radar are  not duplicated by any other ship, by any airplane or by any
satellite.  Ron Brown is a unqiue, national resource.


					Best regards,
					Bob Weller

Robert Weller, rweller@whoi.edu, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, MS
29, Woods Hole, MA 02543 USA    (508) 289 2508  fax (508) 457-2163