Naval Intelligence Survey (NIS) Publications
The Naval Intelligence Survey (NIS) publications
have been discontinued, and distribution is limited.
However, when available, these classified publications
are a valuable source of information about general
climatic influences and topographic/oceanic effects on
regions from which unclassified data may no longer be
available.
Miscellaneous Publications
The following publications contain generally the
same type of climatological information or specific
data. They have proven to be extremely useful.
1.
Climatic Summaries for Major Seventh Fleet
Ports and Waters, NAVAIR 50-1C-62.
2.
Climatic Summaries of Indian Ocean Ports and
Waters, NAVAIR 50-IC-63.
3.
A Climatic Resume of the Mediterranean Sea,
NAVAIR 50-1C-64.
4.
Upper
Wind
Statistics
of
the
Northern
Hemisphere, volumes 1, 2, and 3, NAVAIR 50-1C-535.
5.
Marine Climatic Guide to Tropical Storms at
Sea, NAVAIR 50-IC-61.
6.
Sea Ice Climatic Atlases, volume 1, Antarctic,
NAVAIR 50-1C-540. Volume 2, Arctic East, NAVAIR
50-IC-541.
Volume
3,
Arctic
West,
NAVAIR
50-1C-542.
CLIMATOLOGICAL SERVICES
Requests for climatic support should be made to the
Meteorology Oceanography Facility or Center in your
chain of command. Requests that cannot be fulfilled
are forwarded to:
Fleet Numerical Meteorology and
Oceanography Facility
Asheville, NC 28801-5014
Additional Climatic Sources
In addition to navy climatic publications, there are
other sources for air/ocean climatology data, which are
available to the Aerographer’s Mate for preparing
climatic studies. They are as follows:
The Warfighting Support Center (WSC), Stennis
Space Center Mississippi, provides oceanographic
support. Available data includes tides, currents, and
water structure, etc.
The Air Weather Service Environmental
Technical
Application
Center
(ETAC)
provides
climatic
information
for
Air
Force
operations.
However, data produced by ETAC can be used for naval
applications. A listing of climatology studies available
from the Air Weather Service can be found in Index of
Air
Weather
Service
Technical
Publications
(AWS/TI-84/00 1). Requests for Air Weather Service
publications must be made to Commander, Naval
Meteorology Oceanography Command, Stennis Space
Center, Mississippi.
INTERPRETATION
Climatological
records
must
be
interpreted
correctly to gain the needed information. Proper
interpretation requires that all of the meteorological
elements be studied so they present a composite
picture. One meteorological element alone may mean
very little. For instance, it is possible to conclude that
Cairo, Egypt, and Galveston, Texas, has about the same
kind of weather based solely on the temperature, since
the yearly and monthly means and annual range are
approximately the same. However, Galveston has about
40 times as much precipitation. Thus, their weather
conditions over the year differ greatly.
To interpret just one meteorological element
requires a study of several factors. For example, the
temperature of a particular locality must be studied
from the standpoint not only of the mean but also of the
extremes and the diurnal and annual ranges. The
effectiveness of precipitation also depends on several
factors, such as amount, distribution, and evaporation.
The mean precipitation for a particular month for a
locality may be several inches, but the interpreter may
find from a study of the locality’s records that in some
years the precipitation for that month is less than an
inch, possibly not even a trace.
APPLICATION TO WEATHER PREDICTION
Climatology is introduced where operational
planning is required for a length of time beyond the
range covered by weather-forecasting techniques. A
study of the climate of an area or region may well
foretell the general weather pattern to be expected.
Both the experienced and the inexperienced
forecaster and assistant forecaster can make a more
direct application of climatology. Those personnel
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