earth science

The Oceanography Society

The Oceanography Society is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Oceanography Society rather than just read about it. In short: The Oceanography Society (TOS) is a nonprofit society founded in 1988, based in Rockville, Maryland, U.S. and incorporated in the District of Columbia. It is an oceanographical organization that aims to promote communication among oceanographers, spread knowledge through research and education, and to provide a constituency for building consensus amongst the sub-disciplines of the field.

Key takeaways

The Oceanography Society belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Oceanography Society to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Oceanography Society from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Oceanography Society (TOS) is a nonprofit society founded in 1988, based in Rockville, Maryland, U.S. and incorporated in the District of Columbia. It is an oceanographical organization that aims to promote communication among oceanographers, spread knowledge through research and education, and to provide a constituency for building consensus amongst the sub-disciplines of the field. The society publishes the scientific journal Oceanography, which publishes articles on all oceanic disciplines.

History The idea for forming an oceanographic society was hatched by a group of scientists, who approached both the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society with the idea. The two groups both responded positively, leading to several oceanographic events at the time. However, the need developed for the creation of an independent community, resulting in the formation of the Oceanography Society in March 1988. These early developments by the society were paralleled by developments in the Challenger Society for Marine Science.

Awards The Oceanography Society gives out three awards—the Jerlov Award, the Walter Munk Medal, and the Oceanography Society Fellows Program.

Jerlov Award The Jerlov Award is awarded by the society biennially "in recognition of the contribution made to the advancement of our knowledge of the nature and consequences of light in the ocean" and to "recognize outstanding achievements in ocean optics and ocean color remote sensing research". It is named after Nils Gunnar Jerlov, an early leader in the area of ocean optics research. Jerlov's work on ocean optical and other similar processes helped to create modern ocean optical research. His book Marine Optics, published in 1976, is still widely referenced by other sources and is read by students of ocean optics and ocean color sensing.

Recipients have been:

Walter Munk Medal The Walter Munk Award was "awarded in recognition of distinguished research in oceanography related to sound and the sea". It is named after Walter Munk, the first recipient in 1993. The award is given by the society jointly with the Office of Naval Research and the Office of the Oceanographer of the Navy. Since 2019, it has been reestablished as the Walter Munk Medal to be awarded biennially "to an individual ocean scientist for extraordinary accomplishments and novel insights in the area of physical oceanography, ocean acoustics, or marine geophysics". Recipients have been:

Oceanography Society Fellows Program The Fellows Program "recognizes individuals who have attained eminence in oceanography through their outstanding contributions to the field of oceanography or its applications during a substantial period of years". Individuals in the Society can be elected as a TOS Fellow with outstanding contributions to the field of oceanography as well as devotion to the field. An individual is usually considered for nomination after he or she has been a member of the society for at least three years.

Journal

Oceanography is published quarterly—every March, June, September, and December. It contains peer-reviewed articles on many aspects of ocean science. The journal was first published in 1988; all of its issues are available both in print and online as PDF files.

References

External links Official website Oceanography Online Archive – all back issues of the journal are fully online

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Oceanography Society

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Oceanography Society claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Oceanography Society before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Oceanography Society ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Oceanography Society

In research: The Oceanography Society appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Oceanography Society in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Oceanography Society is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Environmental organizations established in 1988, Oceanographic organizations, Scientific organizations established in 1988, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Oceanography Society outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Oceanography Society in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Oceanography Society means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Oceanography Society out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Oceanography Society in simple terms?

Why does The Oceanography Society matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Oceanography Society?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Oceanography Society.