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Operating in the atmosphere,
oceans, and the interface between the two, the
U.S. Navy has a unique requirement to integrate meteorological and
oceanographic support globally. Under the Chief of Naval Operations,
the Oceanographer of the Navy's lower echelon commands provide meteorological
support for Navy units, meteorological products to the U.S. Marine
Corps, and oceanographic and precise time support to all elements
of DOD. Basic oceanographic and meteorological research and development,
funded by the Chief of Naval Research (CNR), is conducted by in-house
laboratories or universities and organizations under Navy contract.
Applied research - development of new sensors and tactical support
systems - is funded both by CNR and the Oceanographer of the Navy
and is conducted by Navy laboratories and Navy Systems Commands and
their contractors.
Operational support to ships, aircraft, and shore stations is provided
by activites of the Commander, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography
Command (CNMOC). Direct support to staffs, ships, and commands afloat
and ashore is provided by officer and enlisted meteorology and oceanography
(METOC) personnel assigned to fleet units. Shore activities of the
naval oceanography community include the Fleet Numerical Meteorology
and Oceanography Center, the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office, the
National Ice Center, four theater centers (Atlantic, European, Pacific,
and Western Pacific), four Facilities, and 39 Detachments.
Navy oceanographers can deploy
anywhere - in any ocean, at any time - to collect data and generate products to meet operational
needs. Under a long range plan developed in 1986, Navy is continuing
the modernization of its oceanographic fleet. When tion of Oceanography.
ATLANTIS, delivered in 1997, is operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution and is capable of supporting the deep submergence vehicle
ALVIN. Congress has approprated funds to acquire a small water-plane
area twin-hull (SWATH) research ship to replace the aging R/V MOANA
WAVE, and a cooperative (Navy, Industry, Ship Operators) procurement
program recently commenced.
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Training and education continue to be emphasized in the naval oceanography
community. All meteorology/oceanography (METOC)
officers are required to earn a master's degree in air/ocean science,
generally at the Naval Postgraduate School, in Monterey, CA. Also, a two-year master's degree program in oceanography sponsored
by the Secretary of the Navy enrolls a student a year in the curriculum
administered jointly by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, MA.
Forecasting the Atmosphere
and Oceans
The Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC)
in Monterey, CA is Navy's processing center for running stateoftheart
global and high resolution theater/regional-scale atmospheric and
oceanographic analysis and forecast models. The center gets global
environmental data through links with DOD and NOAA data distribution
systems. Numerically-generated products are distributed on Navy and
Joint command and control systems via the Navy theater METOC centers.
These centers then develop value-added products and services tailored
to specific military operations in their areas. In addition to its
standard product suite, FNMOC is uniquely capable of providing high
resolution forecast products on short notice for any regional area
in support of global military and humanitarian contingencies.
The Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO), at Stennis
Space Center, MS, is responsible for collecting, processing, and distributing
oceanographic, hydrographic, and other geophysical data and products.
It is the Navy's primary processing facility for NOAA polar-orbiting
satellite data and has been designated a national Center of Expertise
for sea surface temperature measurements. Furthermore, since it is
both an operational processing center and a DOD Major Shared Resource
Center, research and development programs using NAVOCEANO's CRAY T90/T3E
supercomputer can be easily transitioned to operational use in Navy
METOC models. Additionally, NAVOCEANO's Warfighting Support Center
provides near real-time, tailored oceanographic products to support
operational commands at beach scales and larger. These include global
ocean front and eddy analyses, preprocessed multichannel sea-surface
temperature (MCSST) analyses from polar-orbiting satellites, satellite
altimetry and scatterometry data from ERS and TOPEX satellites, high-resolution
ocean model output, data and imagery from intelligence satellites,
and Special Operations Forces support. The WSC is our most prominent
example of increased emphasis on littoral support. With repeated successes
in providing tailored products to expeditionary warfighting customers,
and has become a recognized center of excellence for DOD operational
oceanography. (Approximately 1300 requests per year are handled) With
access to an unequaled pool of scientists, databases, literature,
and remote sensing resources for describing the near-shore battlespace
environment, the WSC can respond immediately to product requests.
In 1995, a MEDEA (Measurement of Earth Data for Environmental
Analysis) Special Task Force Study was initiated by a panel
of "blue-ribbon" scientists commissioned by Vice President
Gore and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Their report found
Navy unequaled in production of ocean databases and ocean models.
The report urged a stronger cooperation between civilian and Navy
ocean science communities to obtain increased national benefit from
Navy investments in global data collection and modeling. This has
led to a concerted effort to declassify much of the environmental
data gathered for defense purposes during the Cold War.
The Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO) is a key
player in the CNO Mine Warfare Initiative, contributing survey and
tailored product support to the program. CNO N85 (Expeditionary Warfare
Division) has acknowledged the importance of that support by contributing
additional yearly support to the NAVOCEANO efforts in this area.
Tailored ice forecasts and analyses are provided to DOD by the National
Ice Center (NIC), located in Suitland, MD, jointly operated
by Navy, NOAA and the U.S. Coast Guard. The NIC provides sea and lake
ice analyses, and forecasts for the Arctic and Antarctic regions,
coastal U.S. waters, and the Great Lakes to both civil and military
activities.
Four theater meteorology and oceanography (METOC)
centers - located in Pearl Harbor HI, Guam, Norfolk VA, and Rota,
Spain, provide broad geographical METOC services within their areas
of responsibility. These centers manage and prioritize the dissemination
of basic numerical products, provide full spectrum meteorological
and oceanographic services, and generate tailored products to support
theater and other special requirements. Routinely prepared reports
include high winds and seas warnings, area and local forecasts, enroute
ship weather forecasts, and ship track routing recommendations.
Currently the theater center on Guam operates the Joint Typhoon
Warning Center (JTWC) with the U.S. Air Force, to provide
tropical cyclone warnings to DOD and U.S. interests in the Western
Pacific and Indian Oceans. The center at Pearl Harbor, HI, issues
tropical cyclone warnings for the eastern and central South Pacific.
In 1999, the JTWC will move to Pearl Harbor, the Regional Center on
Guam will close, and Yokosuka will become the new regional center
for this area of the world. Facilities at Jacksonville FL; San Diego
CA; Pensacola FL; and Yokosuka, Japan - as well as 39 smaller detachments
worldwide - provide local and aviation forecast services, to aviation,
afloat, and submarine staffs.
The primary sources of onscene Navy meteorological and oceanographic
support for forces afloat and those ashore intheater are provided
by permanently embarked Navy personnel, or by deployable assets (Mobile
Environmental Teams, or MET teams). The Navy's permanent afloat meteorology
and oceanography (METOC) assets are the Operational Aerology
(OA) Divisions, embarked aboard major aviationcapable combatants and
command ships. They interpret weather and ocean conditions to ensure
optimum use of weapons and sensors and operational safety, and provide
tailored onscene products and services to the assigned task force/group
and allied units in Navy, Joint, or coalition military and humanitarian
operations. The METs are the Navy's deployable METOC assets. These
teams provide shortterm, onscene services to units and activities
without permanent METOC personnel. They have their own portable sensing,
processing, and display equipment and have the capability to set up
a Navy Automated Weather Station at remote sites to provide direct
readout and/or transmission of the data via satellite. They also deploy
with portable systems to receive, display, and manipulate low resolution
geostationary meteorological satellite imagery; to acquire and display
the latest gridded data fields available from FNMOC's numerical model
analyses and forecasts; and to receive enhanced oceanic satellite
imagery from Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO).
The centerpiece of the shipboard suite of METOC equipment is the Tactical
Environmental Support System (TESS), which is an interactive
data fusion system which receives, stores, processes, displays, and
disseminates meteorological and oceanographic data and products. An
enhanced configuration, TESS Next Century (NC), capitalizing on improved
personal computer (PC) technology, is under accelerated development.
TESS (NC) will be a modular, computer-based support system providing
warfighters on major combatant ships with METOC input to weapons loading
and go/no go operational decisions. Data sources include in-situ sensors,
geostationary and polar-orbiting satellites, U.S. and foreign weather
broadcasts, and three-dimensional weather and oceanic data fields
prepared ashore.
The Navy Integrated Tactical Environmental Sub-system (NITES)
is a modular, open-architecture software sub-system of TESS (NC) that
is integrated as a segment of the Navy C4I system on board all ships
and at all major Navy/Marine Corps commands and staffs, both ashore
and afloat. NITES integrates TESS(NC)-derived products into command
and control tactical decision aids for use with strategic and tactical
computer systems on smaller ships and sites. The open system design
of NITES will provide complete interoperability with other DOD, Federal,
and Allied command and control systems connected to the new Global
Command and Control System (GCCS).
Navy's interoperability with Allies in combined operations is being
vastly improved by the development of the Allied Environmental
Support System (AESS) which is sold to our Allies through
the Foreign Military Sales Program. Similar to U.S. Navy systems,
AESS will ensure the U.S. and its allies are using the same meteorological
and oceanographic products to support combined operations. AESS is
already the centerpiece of shore-based METOC support for NATO and
several non-NATO allied Navies. New AESS configurations for real-time
warfighting at sea - on ships, submarines, and maritime patrol aircraft
- are also available. Interest in AESS has expanded rapidly within
NATO and in western Pacific and South American navies.
AESS is just one part of a broad program of METOC cooperation with
our international allies. A number of international agreements exist
which guide the routine exchange of METOC information to improve naval
operations worldwide. Annual meetings with NATO and individual countries
formalize the process and foster increased cooperation. Many lessons
learned from U.S. Navy programs are now being incorporated by our
own allies. With reduced METOC budgets for all navies, such international
cooperation has resulted in a significant cost savings for all participating
nations.
Navy currently has cooperative agreements for collecting survey data
with nearly 30 countries. These programs are cost-effective means
of leveraging allied efforts to address U.S. requirements for data
in littoral regions. The Hydrographic Cooperation Program
(HYCOOP) focuses on hydrographic data collection for the
production of nautical charts and related products; the Oceanographic
Cooperation Program (OCOOP) focuses on oceanographic data
collection to satisfy mutual mine warfare or antisubmarine warfare
requirements. Under both programs, the partner nation provides the
survey platform, some equipment and operating personnel; the U.S.
Navy contributes specialized equipment for cooperative use during
the surveys and technical expertise.
Recent changes in world politics have brought unprecedented opportunities
for survey access and cooperative oceanographic agreements. During
the past year our military survey ships have been operating in the
South China Sea, in the Arabian Gulf, and in the Mediterranean. Negotiations
continue on nearly a dozen new international agreements.
The focus of Naval Oceanography remains one of collecting oceanographic
data, and fusing oceanographic data from all sources into tactically
useful products and services for the Fleet. Although more than 210
ship-years of high-priority littoral oceanographic, hydrographic,
and geophysical survey requirements remain, we are making steady progress
toward that goal.
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