Ocean Weather Station

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.^[1]

However, as of 1983, data was still being collected by OWS Mike, Romeo, Charlie and Lima^[2], and searches for data at many of the OWS locations will result in up-to-date infomation^[3].

The seventeen Ocean Weather Stations in the northern hemisphere, with their locations^[4], follow below:

Letter	Name	Latitude (North)	Longitude (East)
A	Alpha	62°	-33°
B	Bravo	56° 30"	-51°
C	Charlie	52° 45"	-35° 30"
D	Delta	44°	-41°
E	Echo	35°	-48°
H	Hotel	38°	-71°
I	India	59°	-19°
J	Juliet/Juliett	52° 30"	-20°
K	Kilo	45°	-16°
L	Lima	57°	-20°
M	Mike	66°	2°
N	November	30°	-140°
P	Papa	50°	-145°
R	Romeo	47°	-17°
T	Tango	29°	-135°
V	Victor	34°	164°
X	Extra	39°	153°

[edit] References