Atmopheric Science
Warm ocean water, high humidity, and low wind shear are the three key ingredients needed to bake up this massive tropical storm.
What is a hurricane (or tropical cyclone)?
These five massive, circular ocean current systems are driven by global winds and the Earth's rotation.
What are gyres?
This critical step combines raw weather observations with a previous model forecast to create a physically consistent starting point for a new run.
What is data assimilation?
Launched on June 6, 1944, this massive Allied operation in Normandy remains the largest amphibious invasion in military history.
What is Operation Overlord (or D-Day)?
This massive project will greatly improve FNMOC's resiliency in the face of power outages and car week accidents
What is 2NSP/ST21?
These two thermal boundaries represent the leading edges of advancing warm or cold air masses.
What are warm and cold fronts?
The ocean's equivalent of weather fronts, these swirling loops pinch off from major currents to trap and transport warm or cold water
What are eddies?
instead of relying on just one forecast, meteorologists run a model multiple times with slight variations to create this "group" forecast, revealing a range of possible outcomes.
What is an ensemble?
At night, you can determine if a ship is showing you this side of its hull by spotting its red running light.
What is port?
Now housed in room 156, this critical piece of equipment keeps our power clean and stable
What is UPS?
Combining the Latin words for "layer" and "heap," this hybrid cloud name describes low, gray sheets that break patchily into bumpy, rolling structures.
What is stratocumulus?
Named for a Swedish oceanographer, this effect causes net water movement to flow 90 degrees to the right of the wind direction in the Northern Hemisphere.
What is Ekman transport (or the Ekman spiral)?
This term describes the horizontal distance between two grid points in a model; making it smaller increases the model's ability to "see" fine details.
What is resolution (or grid spacing)?
Demanding honest self-assessment and a commitment to continuous improvement, this four-word rallying cry is the modern Navy's core initiative for problem-solving and leadership.
What is "Get Real, Get Better"?
This was the original name of the entity that is now widely known as FNMOC
What is Navy Numerical Weather Problems (NANWEP) group?
Fleet Numerical Weather Facility (FNWF) also accepted
This process occurs when wind direction changes clockwise with height, indicating warm air is moving in and increasing atmospheric instability.
What is warm air advection (or veering)?
Submarine operators watch this sharp marine layer closely, as its rapid temperature drop bends sonar waves and can "hide" vessels.
What is the thermocline?
When nesting a high-resolution regional model inside a larger global model, the regional model gets its edge-of-the-map weather data from these.
What are (lateral) boundary conditions?
Signed by President Truman, this pivotal 1947 piece of legislation established the modern Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CIA, and an independent U.S. Air Force.
What is the National Security Act?
This ancient coding language from the 80s was still found in some FNMOC code up until very recently
What is ADA?
This dimensionless number measures the ratio of inertial forces to Coriolis forces, helping determine if planetary rotation dominates a storm's behavior.
What is the Rossby number?
The global ocean "conveyor belt" is a circulation network driven entirely by density differences, which are controlled by these two properties.
What are temperature and salinity (thermohaline circulation)?
Named after a Greek letter, these coordinate systems follow the curves of mountains at the surface but flatten out into standard pressure levels high in the atmosphere.
What are sigma coordinates (or terrain-following coordinates)?
This Navy officer and polar explorer received the Medal of Honor for his 1926 Arctic flight, later leading massive expeditions that mapped Antarctica's meteorology and oceans.
Who is Richard E. Byrd?
Named after the guard dog of the underworld, this program manages log in access to DSRC monitoring
What is Kerberos?