NEW DELHI: India is examining from a security angle the proposal for Indian participation in the proposed American underwater experiment in the Indian Ocean.
The experiment that involves study of long distance underwater sound transmission is being sponsored by the US Navy and three other American agencies. The study may have implications in antisubmarine warfare technologies, some Indian scientists say.
The National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in Goa, under the council of scientific and industrial research (CSIR) has been invited to join the study.
A CSIR official told PTT here the department of ocean development has approved the participation but clearance by the defence ministry is awaited.
According to Dr Walter Munk of the Scripts Institution of Oceanography in California and Chief Organizer of the project, the experiment aims at testing the global warming theory by measuring the speed of sound under water.
Since the speed increases with water temperature, an underwater map of sound velocities will tell if the ocean—and the planet as a whole—are warming up.
Some Indian Oceanographers say the same data may help in improving technologies for undersea communications between submarines and in refining tools.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 21, 1990
