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Sea Change: The World Ocean Circulation Experiment and the Productive Limits of Ocean Variability

Lehman, J.

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Abstract

The ability to quantify the relationship between the ocean and the atmosphere is an enduring challenge for global-scale science. This paper analyzes the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE, 1990–2002), an international oceanographic program that aimed to provide data for decadal-scale climate modeling and for the first time produce a “snapshot” of ocean circulation against which future change could be measured. WOCE was an ambitious project that drew on extensive international collaboration and emerging technologies that continue to play a significant role in how the global environment is known and governed. However, a main outcome of WOCE was an encounter with ocean variability: the notion that the ocean is governed not by the circular currents shown in the popular “conveyor-belt” diagram but by eddies, filaments, jets, and other nonlinear forces. This paper suggests the concept of “productive limits” as an analytic for understanding how ocean variability both prompted new forms of knowledge and the development of a global knowledge infrastructure that is contingent, uneven, and fully entwined with geopolitical dynamics.

Citation

Lehman, J. (2021). Sea Change: The World Ocean Circulation Experiment and the Productive Limits of Ocean Variability. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 46(4), 839-862. https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243920949932

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jul 3, 2020
Online Publication Date Aug 30, 2020
Publication Date Jul 1, 2021
Deposit Date Aug 4, 2020
Publicly Available Date Sep 1, 2020
Journal Science, Technology, and Human Values
Print ISSN 0162-2439
Electronic ISSN 0162-2439
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 46
Issue 4
Pages 839-862
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243920949932

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Advance online version This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).





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