It is highly required to make observations of chemical tracers to verify the above story.
2.3 variability with over decadal time scale
As there has been a fruit of TRANSPAC observations that a regime shift in the upper ocean thermal structure happened in the mid 70's, it would be important to maintain and extend these activities for continuous monitoring of climate change. As for the oceanographic structure deeper than some hundreds meters, re-occupation of WHP and pre-WHP lines such as P1, P13, P16 would be the most effective way to detect long term change in the ocean.
3. New research programme
According to the discussion in the feasibility study, a proposal of a new research programme is to be submitted to Science and Technology Agency, a funding agency for scientific researches. We hope to start this programme in the fiscal 1997 as a 5 years project, having close cooperation with scientists in US and other countries who are interested in the subpolar gyre of the North Pacific.
