Ocean Weather Station

As defined by the World Meteorological Organization, an Ocean Weather Station (OWS) is a specific maritime location occupied by one or more ships (typically one at a time) equipped and staffed to observe weather and sea conditions and report the observations by international exchange.

In January 1940 President Roosevelt established the "Atlantic Weather Observation Service" using Coast Guard cutters and US Weather Bureau observers. At the service's peak in World War II, there were 22 Atlantic and 24 Pacific stations. At war's end, the Navy intended to discontinue weather ship operations, but pressure from several sources resulted instead in establishment of a permanent peacetime system of 13 stations. By 1970, new jet aircraft were coming to rely less on fixed ocean stations, and satellites were beginning to provide weather data. In 1974, the Coast Guard announced plans to terminate the US stations, and, in 1977, the last weather ship was replaced by a newly developed buoy. [cite news |url=http://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/viewArticle.do?id=2343 |title=Alpha, Bravo, Charlie... Ocean Weather Ships 1940-1980|first=Robertson P. |last=Dinsmore |publisher=Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Marine Operations |date=December 1996 ]

However, as of 1983, data was still being collected by OWS Mike, Romeo, Charlie and Lima [ [http://www.bodc.ac.uk/data/information_and_inventories/edmed/report/1048041/ North Atlantic Ocean Weather Ship (OWS) Surface Meteorological Data (1945-1983)] ] , and searches for data at many of the OWS locations will result in up-to-date infomation [ [http://www.ices.dk/ocean/ ICES Oceanographic Database and Services] ] .

The seventeen Ocean Weather Stations in the northern hemisphere, with their locations [ [http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/General/NODC-Archive/bt.txt Code Tables used with any bathythermograph file type] ] , follow below:

References