No.140

June 5, 2006

●	Threading Alliances through the Ocean - The Building of The University of Tokyo's Ocean Alliance - Tamaki Ura Professor, Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo
●	Expectations on Wind Generation on the Ocean Masayuki Hori Professor, Division of University Corporate Relations, The University of Tokyo
●	The Development of a Float of a Depth of 4,000 Meters Masahiro Yoshida ARGO Group, Institute of Observational Research for Global Change, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology

Threading Alliances through the Ocean - The Building of The University of Tokyo's Ocean Alliance -

Tamaki Ura
Professor, Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo

The Ocean unites a vast array of different fields, whose coordination and research demands a great diversity of alliances whose reach extends far beyond that of existing ministries and disciplines.
To create an interdisciplinary network of researchers that goes beyond the institutional framework of graduate courses and specialized majors, the University of Tokyo launched "The University of Tokyo's Ocean Alliance" in January of this year.
Already, through the promotion of the University, the "Marine Technology Forum" has established a permanent and highly active, cross-disciplinary community that brings together academic, business and governmental circles. Such alliances blow a fresh sea breeze through the entire maritime community and can be considered as a track leading Japan into becoming a prominent maritime-oriented nation

Expectations on Wind Generation on the Ocean

Masayuki Hori
Professor, Division of University Corporate Relations, The University of Tokyo

A project on wind generation on the ocean has become active.
At present, there are approaches to ongoing projects in Japan - National Institute for Environmental Studies-driven, National Maritime Research Institute-driven, and The University of Tokyo/Tokyo Electric Power-driven.
This article introduces the intentions of each project and comments on its merits and demerits.

The Development of a Float of a Depth of 4,000 Meters

Masahiro Yoshida
ARGO Group, Institute of Observational Research for Global Change, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology

The ongoing ARGO Project which is previously unheard of is a large international project aiming to monitor the upper layer of the ocean globally with the deployment of 3,000 floats.
However, since current floats can only monitor until a depth of 2,000 meters, the deep layer of the ocean cannot be directly monitored.
The mean depth of the ocean is 3,800 meters. This article suggests the development of a deep ocean float capable of carrying a wide variety of sensors which will allow oceanographic survey and monitoring up to a depth of 4,000 meters and describes its effectiveness.