This is one component of a group proposal among four PIs from four institutions requesting funds to integrate, quality-control, disseminate, and begin the interpretation of the global Tritium/Helium isotope data set collected by four US laboratories during the WOCE (World Ocean Circulation Experiment) Hydrographic Program. PIs plan to coordinate with a similar project proposed by the corresponding European groups, and will also collaborate with other tracer programs, such as the recently-funded team analyzing ChlorofluoroCarbons (CFC). The main goal of the project is to make an integrated, quality-controlled data set available to the oceanographic community for use in the AIMS phase of WOCE (AIMS = Analysis, Interpretation, Modeling, and Synthesis). Less explicitly, the PIs propose to summarize the He/Tr isotope fields in a set of manuscripts, written in common format and containing technical information on the production of the data sets, as well as scientific discussion of the main features of the fields. These would be followed by the identification of scientific issues to be addressed collaboratively with other WOCE investigators. This particular project will address primarily the deep circulation in the Pacific.
