Ауа райын болжауға көмектесетін кемелер тарихы

Ship used to aid weather forecasting

A weather ship, or ocean station vessel, was a ship stationed in the ocean for surface and upper air meteorological observations for use in weather forecasting. They were primarily located in the north Atlantic and north Pacific oceans, reporting via radio. The vessels aided in search and rescue operations, supported transatlantic flights, acted as research platforms for oceanographers, monitored marine pollution, and aided weather forecasting by weather forecasters and in computerized atmospheric models. Research vessels remain heavily used in oceanography, including physical oceanography and the integration of meteorological and climatological data in Earth system science. The idea of a stationary weather ship was proposed as early as 1921 by Météo France to help support shipping and the coming of transatlantic aviation. They were used during World War II but had no means of defense, which led to the loss of several ships and many lives. On the whole, the establishment of weather ships proved to be so useful during World War II for Europe and North America that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) established a global network of weather ships in 1948, with 13 to be supplied by Canada, the United States and some European countries. This number was eventually cut to nine. The agreement of the use of weather ships by the international community ended in 1985. Weather ship observations proved to be helpful in wind and wave studies, as commercial shipping tended to avoid weather systems for safety reasons, whereas the weather ships did not. They were also helpful in monitoring storms at sea, such as tropical cyclones. Beginning in the 1970s, their role was largely superseded by cheaper weather buoys. The removal of a weather ship became a negative factor in forecasts leading up to the Great Storm of 1987. The last weather ship was Polarfront, known as weather station M ("Mike"), which was removed from operation on January 1, 2010. Weather observations from ships continue from a fleet of voluntary merchant vessels in routine commercial operation.

The establishment of weather ships proved to be so useful during World War II that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) had established a global network of 13 weather ships by 1948, with seven operated by the United States, one operated jointly by the United States and Canada, two supplied by the United Kingdom, one maintained by France, one a joint venture by the Netherlands and Belgium, and one shared by the United Kingdom, Norway, and Sweden. The United Kingdom used Royal Navy corvettes to operate their two stations, and staffed crews of 53 Met Office personnel. The ships were out at sea for 27 days, and in port for 15 days. Their first ship was deployed on July 31, 1947. Weather Bureau employees aboard the vessels worked 40 to 63 hours per week. Weather ship G ("George") was dropped from the network on July 1, 1949, and Navy weather ship "Bird Dog" ceased operations on August 1, 1949. In the Atlantic, weather vessel F ("Fox") was discontinued on September 3, 1949, and there was a change in location for ships D ("Dog") and E ("Easy") at the same time. Navy weather ship J ("Jig") in the north central Pacific Ocean was placed out of service on October 1, 1949. The original international agreement for a 13 ship minimum was later amended downward. In 1949, the minimum number of weather ships operated by the United States was decreased to ten, and in 1954 the figure was lowered again to nine, both changes being made for economic reasons.

Weather ship B ("Baker"), which had been jointly operated by Canada and the United States, became solely a United States venture on July 1, 1950. The Netherlands and the United States began to jointly operate weather ship A ("Able") in the Atlantic on July 22, 1950. The Korean War led to the discontinuing of weather vessel O ("Oboe") on July 31, 1950 in the Pacific, and ship S ("Sugar") was established on September 10, 1950. Weather ship P's ("Peter") operations were taken over by Canada on December 1, 1950, which allowed the Coast Guard to begin operating station U ("Uncle") west of northern Baja California on December 12, 1950. As a result of these changes, ship N ("Nan") was moved to the southeast on December 10, 1950. Responsibility for weather ship V ("Victor") transferred from the United States Navy to the United States Coast Guard and Weather Bureau on September 30, 1951. On March 20, 1952, Vessels N ("November") and U ("Uncle") were moved to the south to lie under airplane paths between the western United States coast and Honolulu, Hawaii. In 1956 , while stationed at N ("November"), rescued the crew and passengers of Pan Am Flight 6 after the crippled aircraft diverted to the cutter's position and ditched in the ocean. Weather vessel Q ("Quebec") began operation in the north central Pacific on April 6, 1952, while in the western Atlantic, the British corvettes used as weather ships were replaced by newer Castle class frigates between 1958 and 1961. South Africa maintained a weather ship near latitude 40° South, longitude 10° East between September 1969 and March 1974.

When compared to the cost of unmanned weather buoys, weather ships became expensive, and weather buoys began to replace United States weather ships in the 1970s. Across the northern Atlantic, the number of weather ships dwindled over the years. The original nine ships in the region had fallen to eight after ocean vessel C ("Charlie") was discontinued by the United States in December 1973. A new international agreement for ocean weather vessels was reached through the World Meteorological Organization in 1975, which eliminated Ships I (India) and J (Juliett), and left ships M ("Mike"), R ("Romeo"), C ("Charlie"), and L ("Lima") across the northern Atlantic, with the four remaining ships in operation through 1983. Two of the British frigates were refurbished, as there was no funding available for new weather ships. Their other two ships were retired, as one of the British run stations was eliminated in the international agreement. The last two British frigates were retired from ocean weather service by January 11, 1982, but the international agreement for weather ships was continued through 1985. Because of high operating costs and budget issues, weather ship R ("Romeo") was recalled from the Bay of Biscay before the deployment of a weather buoy for the region. This recall was blamed for the minimal warning given in advance of the Great Storm of 1987, when wind speeds of up to caused extensive damage to areas of southern England and northern France. The last weather ship was Polarfront, known as weather station M ("Mike") at 66°N, 02°E, run by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. Polarfront was withdrawn from operation on January 1, 2010. Despite the loss of designated weather ships, weather observations from ships continue from a fleet of voluntary merchant vessels in routine commercial operation, whose number has decreased since 1985.

Beginning in 1951, British ocean weather vessels began oceanographic research, such as monitoring plankton, casting of drift bottles, and sampling seawater. In July 1952, as part of a research project on birds by Cambridge University, twenty shearwaters were taken more than offshore in British weather ships, before being released to see how quickly they would return to their nests, which were more than away on Skokholm Island. 18 of the twenty returned, the first in just 36 hours. During 1954, British weather ocean vessels began to measure sea surface temperature gradients and monitored ocean waves. They were also useful in wind and wave studies, as they did not avoid weather systems like merchant ships tended to and were considered a valuable resource. In 1962, British weather vessels measured sea temperature and salinity values from the surface down to as part of their duties. During 1971, British weather ships sampled the upper of the ocean to investigate plankton distribution by depth. In 1972, the Joint Air Sea Interaction Experiment (JASIN) utilized special observations from weather ships for their research. More recently, in support of climate research, 20 years of data from the ocean vessel P ("Papa") was compared to nearby voluntary weather observations from mobile ships within the International Comprehensive Ocean Atmosphere Data Set to check for biases in mobile ship observations over that time frame.