The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject.(March 2013) |
Military meteorology is meteorology applied to military purposes, by armed forces or other agencies. It is one of the most common fields of employment for meteorologists.
World War II brought great advances in meteorology as large-scale military land, sea, and air campaigns were highly dependent on weather, particularly forecasts provided by the Royal Navy, Met Office and USAAF for the Normandy landing and strategic bombing.
University meteorology departments grew rapidly as the military services sent cadets to be trained as weather officers. Wartime technological developments such as radar also proved to be valuable meteorological observing systems. More recently, the use of satellites in space has contributed extensively to military meteorology.
Military meteorologists currently operate with a wide variety of military units, from aircraft carriers to special forces.
Enlisted meteorology and oceanography forecasters are called aerographer's mates.
Naval meteorology and oceanography officers are restricted line officers in the Information Dominance Corps. [1]
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consist of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. All six armed services are among the eight uniformed services of the United States, along with the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps.
Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the conditions of the atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia and formally since the 19th century.
The United States Fleet Forces Command (USFFC) is a service component command of the United States Navy that provides naval forces to a wide variety of U.S. forces. The naval resources may be allocated to Combatant Commanders such as United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) under the authority of the Secretary of Defense. Originally formed as United States Atlantic Fleet (USLANTFLT) in 1906, it has been an integral part of the defense of the United States of America since the early 20th century. In 2002, the Fleet comprised over 118,000 Navy and Marine Corps personnel serving on 186 ships and in 1,300 aircraft, with an area of responsibility ranging over most of the Atlantic Ocean from the North Pole to the South Pole, the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and the waters of the Pacific Ocean along the coasts of Central and South America.
Sverre Petterssen was a Norwegian meteorologist, prominent in the field of weather analysis and forecasting.
The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is a public graduate school operated by the United States Navy and located in Monterey, California.
The Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) is an echelon IV component of the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command (NMOC), which provides worldwide meteorological and oceanographic data and analysis for the United States Navy and strategic allies of the United States. The center is based out of Monterey, California. FNMOC provides Global and Regional Weather Prediction Charts (WXMAP) and Global Ensemble Weather Prediction Charts (EFS). WxMAP depictions of NAVGEM predictions for side-by-side comparison with NCEP global NWS models (GFS) are also available. FNMOC provides Global and Regional Ocean Wave Prediction Charts (WW3), Global Ensemble Ocean Wave Prediction Charts, and Global Sea Surface Temperature and Sea Surface Anomaly Charts (NCODA). FNMOC provides links to satellite imagery of tropical cyclones (TCWEB) and current tropical storm forecast tracks.
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) is a joint United States Navy – United States Air Force command in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The JTWC is responsible for the issuing of tropical cyclone warnings in the North-West Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean, and Indian Ocean for all branches of the U.S. Department of Defense and other U.S. government agencies. Their warnings are intended primarily for the protection of U.S. military ships and aircraft, as well as military installations jointly operated with other countries around the world. Its U.S. Navy components are aligned with the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command.
Aerographer's mate is a United States Navy occupational rating, devoted to collection and analysis of data related to weather, radar ocean conditions.
Naval Air Station Cecil Field or NAS Cecil Field was a United States Navy air base, located in Duval County, Florida. Prior to October 1999, NAS Cecil Field was the largest military base in terms of acreage in the Jacksonville, Florida area.
The structure of the United States Navy consists of four main bodies: the Office of the Secretary of the Navy, the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, the operating forces, and the Shore Establishment.
Francis Wilton Reichelderfer, also known as “Reich”, presided over a revolutionary era in the history of the Weather Bureau. He trained as a U.S. Navy pilot and from 1922 -1928, was appointed Chief of Navy Aerology because of his meteorological and aviation experience. In 1931, he was assigned to the Bergen School of Meteorology. From 1938 to 1963, Reich directed the Weather Bureau and brought modern technology to weather forecasting.
The Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command (COMNAVMETOCCOM) or CNMOC, serves as the operational arm of the Naval Oceanography Program. Headquartered at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, CNMOC is an echelon three command reporting to United States Fleet Forces Command (USFLTFORCOM). CNMOC's area of responsibility is globally distributed, with assets on larger ships, shore facilities at fleet concentration areas, and larger production centers in the US.
Donald Norton Yates was the US Army Air Force officer who helped select June 6, 1944 as the date for D-Day, the Allied invasion of Europe, in his capacity as chief meteorologist on General Dwight D. Eisenhower's staff. Yates and his British counterpart, James Martin Stagg, chose well – it turned out to be the only day that month the English Channel could have been successfully crossed. Yates was subsequently decorated by three governments. He went on to become the chief meteorologist of the newly formed U.S. Air Force, and commander of the Air Force Missile Test Center at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida.
A squadron in an air force, or naval or army aviation service, is a unit comprising a number of military aircraft and their aircrews, usually of the same type, typically with 12 to 24 aircraft, sometimes divided into three or four flights, depending on aircraft type and air force.
The Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System (NOGAPS) is a global numerical weather prediction computer model run by the United States Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center. This mathematical model was run four times a day and produced weather forecasts. The NOGAPS was replaced by the NAVGEM in February 2013.
Task Force 80, abbreviated as TF-80, has been the designation of several U.S. Navy task forces, with its current use associated with the United States Fleet Forces Command headquartered at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia.
While the United States Space Force gained its independence on 20 December 2019, the history of the United States Space Force can be traced back to the beginnings of the military space program following the conclusion of the Second World War in 1945. Early military space development was begun within the United States Army Air Forces by General Henry H. Arnold, who identified space as a crucial military arena decades before the first spaceflight. Gaining its independence from the Army on 18 September 1947, the United States Air Force began development of military space and ballistic missile programs, while also competing with the United States Army and United States Navy for the space mission.
2LT Wallace Patillo Reed was a World War II U.S. Army officer, U.S. military meteorologist, and the first ever African-American meteorologist in the U.S. military. Reed served at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama as the chief weather officer responsible for the all-African American Tuskegee Airmen. Reed regularly advised Tuskegee Airmen pilots and instructors on weather maps and forecasts.
Fleet Weather Center San Diego (FWC-SD) is an Echelon IV command reporting to Commander Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command and part of the Information Warfare Community. FWC-SD is located on Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego, California, and consists of approximately 400 civilian, military and contract personnel across the Indo-Pacific who are responsible for delivering meteorology and oceanographic capability to Navy, Joint, and Coalition forces operating in Third, Fifth, and Seventh Fleets.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)