Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command
The Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command traces its ancestry to the Depot of Charts and Instruments, a 19th century repository for nautical charts and navigational equipment. In the 1840s, its superintendent, Lieutenant Matthew Fontaine Maury, created and published a revolutionary series of wind and current charts. This information, still resident in modern computer models of ocean basins and the atmosphere, laid the foundation for the sciences of oceanography and meteorology.
Atmospheric science was further developed with the birth of naval aviation early in the 20th century. During World War I and the following decades, naval aerological specialists applied the fledgling concepts of air masses and fronts to warfare and provided forecasts to the first transatlantic flight. The Navy's weather and ocean programs contributed greatly to Allied victory in World War II. In the Pacific, Navy forecasters cracked the Japanese weather code. Hydrographic survey ships, often under enemy fire, collected data along foreign coastlines for the creation of critical navigation charts.
In the mid-1970s, the Navy's meteorology and oceanography programs were integrated in a single organization reflecting nature's close interaction of sea and air. This structure is today the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command.This structure is today the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command.
Commander, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command is a third echelon operational command reporting to Commander, Fleet Forces Command. The command's personnel are located at its headquarters at John C. Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss., and at several field activities located around the world.
The Command's major subordinate activities include the Naval Oceanographic Office, located at Stennis Space Center; Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center, located in Monterey, Calif.; the Naval Observatory, located in Washington, D.C.; the Naval Oceanography Operations Command, located at Stennis Space Center; Fleet Weather Centers in Norfolk, Va. and San Diego, Calif.; and the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Professional Development Center located in Gulfport, Miss.
The command is aligned to and focused on the Navy's five warfighting disciplines -- Anti-Submarine Warfare; Special Warfare; Mine Warfare; Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance; and Fleet Operations (Strike and Expeditionary) -- as well as the following warfighting support disciplines: Navigation, Precise Time and Astrometry, Maritime Operations and Aviation Operations.