 From space, we realize that water covers most of planet Earth. It is ocean waves that transfer and maintain energy in our atmosphere. Recently, an international effort between NASA and the Office of Naval Research studied ocean waves off the coast of Virginia with aircraft, ships and buoys. It was designed to better understand how ocean waves develop and dissipate and how they transfer energy between the sea and air. This information is useful in shipping, ocean monitoring systems and weather forecasting. Much of what we presently know comes from research in wave tanks like the one at NASA Wallops. Using lasers, Dr. Norby Wong investigates the speed of currents below waves. Laboratory research along with field studies like this, the Canadian research vessel CREED help determine how waves and currents interact. The CREED is specially designed with underwater stabilizers and narrow hulls that handle the sea well, making it a near perfect wave study platform. Attached to her bow is this device, which very accurately measures the height and direction of waves. Scattered throughout the ship are a variety of instruments that collect local weather and ocean data. The CREED gathers information between visits to meteorological buoys. In a sense, the ship becomes a calibration device for buoys and aircraft because it makes such accurate measurements. That's right, we're reading a total height of perhaps six, five or six feet. It is a 66.04. Remote sensing planes like NASA's C-130 can cover a larger area than the CREED in much less time. But many of its sophisticated instruments are here and have to be protracted. Even so, there are exciting possibilities according to chief scientist Dr. Mark Donlan. The most striking of which is the ability to measure the surface and directional properties of waves from aircraft with what's called microwave radar systems that look down on the surface and either make an effective stereographic map of the surface by sensing the elevation of the aircraft all by scanning its slow properties and using that. One instrument, built by the University of Massachusetts, produces circular radar scans that plot complete profiles, giving researchers a color-coded roadmap of wave heights. Data from aircraft, buoys, and the ship give a high-angle view of the study site during intense weather. Animation shows a storm's track with hot colors representing the highest waves. Being able to combine research tools like this will eventually lead to the ability to study all oceans of the world from space with satellites, giving us a truly global picture of our water-covered planet.