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OceThe OFFiciaaL MaganZineog OF the Oceanographyra Spocietyhy CITATION Ramp, S.R., and T.Y. Tang. 2011. A history of Taiwan/US oceanographic research in the South China Sea. Oceanography 24(4):16–23, http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2011.90. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2011.90 COPYRIGHT This article has been published inOceanography , Volume 24, Number 4, a quarterly journal of The Oceanography Society. Copyright 2011 by The Oceanography Society. All rights reserved. USAGE Permission is granted to copy this article for use in teaching and research. Republication, systematic reproduction, or collective redistribution of any portion of this article by photocopy machine, reposting, or other means is permitted only with the approval of The Oceanography Society. Send all correspondence to: [email protected] or The Oceanography Society, PO Box 1931, Rockville, MD 20849-1931, USA. doWNLoaded From http://WWW.tos.org/oceanography SPECIAL IssUE ON THE OCEANOGRAPHY OF TAIWAN BY STEVEN R. RAMP AND TsWEN YUNG TANG A History of Taiwan/US Oceanographic Research in the South China Sea Figure 1. A rare photograph of the Taiwanese research fleet docked together in the Port of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. From front to back, Ocean Researcher 3, Ocean Researcher 2, Ocean Researcher 1, and Fisheries Researcher 1. Photo credit: Ya-Chan Chang 16 Oceanography | Vol.24, No.4 INTRODUCTION AND on par with many available in the United Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) BACKGROUND States. A perquisite of this process for moored array and the 1998 South China Oceanography is a relatively new future collaborators is that they all Sea Monsoon Experiment (SCSMEX) field in Taiwan. As a maritime nation became fluent in English, relieving that included many other international surrounded by water, the societal need to Americans of the burden of trying to scientists as well. understand the seas has long been recog- learn Chinese, and greatly facilitating the Research efforts in the South China nized. From the path of the Kuroshio to team-building process. Sea made a quantum leap in the late the path of the ferocious typhoons that Research vessels are, of course, 1990s and 2000s when the US Office of pound the island with devastating regu- essential to successful oceanographic Naval Research became involved in a larity, understanding ocean processes research programs. Taiwan’s old survey serious way. This association all began in and air-sea coupling reaps clear benefits Yang-Ming was the first ship to see a banquet room in Taipei in 1998, when for scientists and citizens alike. An accu- extensive use, conducting many surveys a small delegation from the United States rate path prediction for a single typhoon of the Kuroshio. It was replaced in 1960 met with the senior ocean leadership in may save hundreds of lives and millions by R/V Chiu-Lien, which was leased Taiwan at that time, with no more than of dollars in property damage. Driven by from the US Navy and conducted the 10 or 12 people in the room. One big the need to understand the neighboring first surveys in the South China Sea advantage of having a small leadership seas, Taiwan has embarked on an ambi- (SCS). Following three decades of ship group is the ability to make decisions tious program to develop the human construction, several modern research and move quickly. The United States resources and physical infrastructure vessels now ply the waters around proposed to partner with Taiwan to do needed to conduct ocean research of Taiwan, including Ocean Researcher 1, a large field experiment on the acoustic the highest caliber. Today’s senior professors are the first- generation oceanographers of Taiwan. Because postgraduate infrastructure …THE TWO NATIOns, TAIWAN AND THE UnITED was lacking during their educational years, they by necessity earned their STATES, HAVE BEEN TRULY EQUAL PARTNERS… PhDs abroad. Most chose to pursue THE RESULT HAS BEEN TO RAPIDLY PUSH BACK their education in the United States, THE FRONTIERS OF knOWLEDGE IN THE REGION which was all too happy to have these “ FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL. talented, hard-working students. This cross-cultural pollination held many benefits down the road, including the life-long alliances that professor/student relationships build. While most of the the sister-ships Ocean Researcher 2 and 3, effects of the shelf/slope front near the new graduates returned to Taiwan, many Fisheries Researcher 1, and several naval continental shelf break in the north”- chose to remain in the United States vessels (Figure 1). The new, state-of- eastern SCS. After the first of many fine where they established successful careers the-art Ocean Researcher 5 is currently banquets enjoyed in Taiwan, the Taiwan as leaders in many prominent American under construction and scheduled side said, “We’re in,” glasses were raised, oceanographic institutions. Those who for launch in 2012. These vessels have and indeed they were. The Asian Seas returned became the leaders of modern been key enablers in many cooperative International Acoustics Experiment oceanographic research in Taiwan. They research programs between the United (ASIAEX) in Taiwan was born, and it established first-rate graduate programs States and Taiwan. The earliest of these became the first of many successive, and at their own universities, where today’s programs was the mid-1980s Tropical successful, Taiwan/US collaborations in Taiwanese students receive educations Ocean/Global Atmosphere (TOGA) the South China Sea. Oceanography | December 2011 17 ASIAEX was the largest equipment Science Council (NSC) of Taiwan. A COLLABORATIVE THREAD mobilization that the Woods Hole Like its follow-on, the name reflects As an example of how the Taiwan/United Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) the effort of the two countries, WISE States research alliance has grown and had ever done up to that time, filling up for the United States and VANS for prospered over the years, some results an entire warehouse on the Kaohsiung Taiwan. This experiment obtained a full from the internal wave programs cited waterfront. The warehouse is now gone, a year’s observations, but still only lightly above are described below in greater casualty of the rapid cleanup of the Port sampled the wave-generation region. detail. This is not to say that these of Kaohsiung to diversify the economy The Nonlinear Internal Waves Initiative/ programs are more important than any and attract tourism. Repeat visitors are South China Sea Ocean Prediction others, but rather to illustrate how these often amazed at the rate of change in Experiment (NLIWI/SCOPE) during collaborations have developed over time. Taiwan in as little as one year’s time. A spring and summer 2007 followed the More detailed scientific results from all decade ago there was no High-Speed WISE/VANS experiment (Figure 2). the major programs are presented in Rail, no Taipei 101, no Kaohsiung Metro NLIWI/SCOPE supported a big increase other papers in this issue. Rail, no Dream Mall, no Kaohsiung art in the modeling effort, and brings us up center, the Grand Hi-Lai Hotel had just to the present with the Internal Waves Internal Waves and Tides been completed, and the Love River in Straits Experiment (IWISE) that took Most of the high-frequency energy in was not a place where you would want place during spring and summer 2011. the SCS originates with the barotropic to spend time. Today, visitors take all of Other major programs sprang up in tide that enters the SCS via Luzon Strait these things for granted, as if they had parallel to the internal waves series. The and flows southwest through the sea been there forever. Quantifying, Predicting, and Exploiting (Ye and Robinson, 1983; Mazzega and Alas, the ASIAEX scientists went to Uncertainty (QPE) experiment took Bergé, 1994). The tidal flux through the sea and no shelf/slope front was found. place northeast of Taiwan during strait is one of the largest in the world Serendipitously however, something 2008–2009, and the Impact of Typhoons and results in enormous barotropic to much more exciting was discovered in on the Ocean in the Pacific (ITOP) baroclinic energy conversion (Niwa the form of the world’s largest high- program is still underway. and Hibiya, 2004; Jan et al., 2008) as the frequency nonlinear internal waves. All these programs have one thing in tide flows over two ridges and around Scientists quickly realized that these common, which is that the two nations, islands via a system of shallow sills and waves were a significant source of Taiwan and the United States, have passages. The result is the complicated acoustic variability. The data were tanta- been truly equal partners. Both sides and highly energetic internal tides and lizing but incomplete: the wave arrivals have contributed scientists, research high-frequency nonlinear internal waves were observed, but there were no obser- vessels such as R/V Melville (Figure 3), (NLIWs) that have now been the subject vations of wave generation or propaga- equipment, resources, and graduate of a decade of joint study. The problem tion across the deep basin. Furthermore, students, and meetings and symposia can be loosely divided into generation, the observations during one month in have been held in both countries and propagation, and shoaling/dissipation, spring revealed nothing about wave authorship shared on the final publica- although these processes were not arrivals in other seasons. But curiosity tions. Working side by side under often- studied in that order. The waves were had been raised, and several joint follow- difficult conditions, life-long friendships first noticed in the far field, and teams on experiments were planned. The first have formed (Figure 4). The graduate of these experiments was the 2005–2006 students from ASIAEX are now the prin- Steven R.