NOAA

NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is the U.S. federal agency for weather, ocean, fisheries, and climate, within the Department of Commerce. Its line offices include the National Weather Service, which runs operational forecasting through NCEP; the National Ocean Service; the National Marine Fisheries Service; and the research arm OAR with laboratories such as AOML, PMEL, and GFDL. NOAA leads or hosts much of the U.S. observing effort: the Global Drifter Program, the tropical moored arrays, half the Argo float deployments, the National Data Buoy Center, and the World Ocean Database at NCEI. Its satellites and models underpin marine weather and climate services.