Until the 1980s, a tacit agreement among many physical oceanographers
was that nothing deserving attention could be found in the upper few
meters of the ocean. The lack of adequete knowledge about the
near-surface layer of the ocean was mainly due to the fact that the
widely used oceanographic instruments (such as bathythermographs, CTDs,
current meters, etc.) were practically useless in the upper few meters
of the ocean. Interest in the ne- surface layer of the ocean rapidly
increased along with the development of remote sensing techniques. The
interpretation of ocean surface signals sensed from satellites demanded
thorough knowledge of upper ocean processes and their connection to the
ocean interior. Despite its accessibility to the investigator, the
near-surface layer of the ocean is not a simple subject of experimental
study. Random, sometimes huge, vertical motions of the ocean surface due
to surface waves are a serious complication for collecting quality data
close to the ocean surface. The supposedly minor problem of avoiding
disturbances from ships' wakes has frustrated several generations of
oceanographers attempting to take reliable data from the upper few
meters of the ocean. Important practical applications nevertheless
demanded action, and as a result several pioneering works in the 1970s
and 1980s laid the foundation for the new subject of oceanography - the
near-surface layer of the ocean.