SIGNIFICANT WAVE HEIGHTS 
DAYS 312 - 316, 1986 
90 
60 
30 
0 
-30 
-60 
+ -90 
DAYS 317 - 321, 1986 
■ 30 
-30 
60 
1 1 1 r 
120 160 200 240 280 320 360 
+ -90 
Metres 
Figure 6 - Global 5-day Average Significant Wave Height (SWH) maps computed from the 
GEOSAT Geophysical Data Record SWH observations. The white area around the land masses 
is a result of masking used to exclude SWH values close to land. 
Stream, Kuroshio), while the southern high latitude zonal 
velocity variability is likely associated with the Antarctic 
Circumpolar Current (ACC). While most of these 
conditions are considered normal, conditions following the 
period beginning with ERM 35 (May 22, 1988) are quite 
unusual. The generally quite northern higher latitudes 
experience a many-fold magnitude change in westward 
velocities, while both tropical zones experience extreme 
eastward velocity changes; (here the convention is followed 
that negative values in the displayed values indicate 
westward flux, while positive values indicate eastward 
flux). These noted changes must yet be put in perspective, 
but it is believed that this behaviour is a likely 
manifestation of the El Nino - La Nina cycle [see Chapter 
6 in Christou (1990) for a more detailed discussion]. 
It is hoped that in the near-future such products will be 
generated in a systematic way by the relevant federal 
departments and the university community in Canada. In 
their digital form they will provide the basis for geodetic, 
geophysical and oceanographic follow-up investigations 
such as, studies in support of the shape and interior 
structure of the Earth, of the sea floor topography, and the 
sea surface variability. 
To date the manipulation of these data has lead to conserted 
efforts at CCS to design an efficient database system to 
manage the large volume of data involved (Li, 1990). This 
is currently being considered as an important step in 
providing adequate information to other Canadian users of 
86