Editing Weather ship (section)

==Origin==
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 250px; font-size: 95%; float: right;"
|-
! Letter
! Name
! Latitude<br />(North)
! Longitude<br />(East)
|-
| A	
| Able/Alpha	
| 62°	
| −33°<ref name="BritishShips"/>
|-
| B	
| Baker/Bravo	
| 56° 30"	
| −51°<ref name="ABS"/>
|-
| C	
| Charlie	
| 52° 45"	
| −35° 30"<ref name="BritishShips"/>	
|-
| D	
| Dog/Delta	
| 44°	
| −41°<ref name="DEF"/>
|-
| E	
| Easy/Echo	
| 35°	
| −48°<ref name="DEF"/>
|-
| F
| Fox
| 35°
| −40°<ref name="DEF"/>
|-
| G
| George
| 46°
| −29°<ref name="ByGeorge"/>
|-
| H	
| Hotel	
| 38°	
| −71°<ref name="map"/>
|-
| I	
| India	
| 59°	
| −19°<ref name="BritishShips"/>	
|-
| J	
| Juliet/Juliett	
| 52° 30"	
| −20°<ref name="BritishShips"/>
|-
| K	
| Kilo	
| 45°	
| −16°<ref name="map"/>	
|-
| L	
| Lima	
| 57°	
| −20°<ref name="BritishShips"/>
|-
| M	
| Mike	
| 66°	
| 2°<ref name="BritishShips"/>	
|-
| N	
| Nan/November	
| 30°	
| −140°<ref name="NOP"/>	
|-
| O
| Oboe
| 40°
| −142°<ref name="NOP"/>
|-
| P	
| [[Station P (ocean measurement site)|Peter/Papa]]	
| 50°	
| −145°<ref name="NOP"/>
|-
| Q
| Quebec
| 43°
| −167°<ref name="Q"/>
|-
| R	
| Romeo	
| 47°	
| −17°<ref name="BritishShips"/>
|-
| S
| Sugar
| 48°
| −162°<ref name="ABS"/>
|-
| T	
| Tango	
| 29°	
| 135°<ref name="ClimaticSummaries">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XyfnAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA29|title=Climatic summaries of ocean weather stations|publisher=University of Colorado/NOAA|author=Diaz, H. F., Ramage, C. S., Woodruff, S. D., & Parker, T. S. |year=1987}}</ref>
|-
| U
| Uncle
| 27° 40"
| −145°<ref name="NU"/>
|-
| V	
| Victor	
| 34°	
| 164°<ref name="map"/>
|-
| X	
| Extra	
| 39°	
| 153°<ref>{{cite journal|page=460|volume=11|issue = 4|journal=Journal of Physical Oceanography|date=April 1981|author=Steven K. Esbensen and Richard W. Reynolds|title=Estimating Monthly Averaged Air-Sea Transfers of Heat and Momentum Using the Bulk Aerodynamic Method|doi=10.1175/1520-0485(1981)011<0457:EMAAST>2.0.CO;2|bibcode=1981JPO....11..457E|hdl=2060/19800020489|hdl-access=free}}</ref>	
|}

In the 1860s, Britain began connecting coastal [[Lightvessel|lightship]]s with [[submarine telegraph cable]]s so they could be used as weather stations.  There were attempts to place weather ships using submarine cables far out into the Atlantic.  The first of these was in 1870 with the old Corvette ''The Brick'' 50 miles off [[Lands End]].  £15,000 was spent on the project, but ultimately it failed.  In 1881, there was a proposal for a weather ship in the mid-Atlantic, but it came to nothing.  Deep-ocean weather ships had to await the commencement of [[radio telegraphy]].<ref>Kieve, Jeffrey L., ''The Electric Telegraph: A Social and Economic History'', pp. 241-143, David and Charles, 1973 {{oclc|655205099}}.</ref>

The director of France's meteorological service, Météo-France, proposed the idea of a stationary weather ship in 1921 in order to aid shipping and the coming of transatlantic flights.<ref name="map"/>  Another early proposal for weather ships occurred in connection with aviation in August 1927, when the aircraft designer [[Grover Loening]] stated that "weather stations along the ocean coupled with the development of the [[seaplane]] to have an equally long range, would result in regular ocean flights within ten years."<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ICoDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA121|page=121|date=August 1927|magazine=Popular Science|publisher=Popular Science Publishing Company, Inc.|volume=111|title=The First Plane to Germany|author=George Lee Dowd Jr. |issue=2}}</ref> During 1936 and 1937, the [[Met Office|British Meteorological Office]] (Met Office) installed a meteorologist aboard a North Atlantic cargo [[steamboat|steamer]] to take special [[surface weather observation]]s and release [[ceiling balloon|pilot balloons]] to measure the winds aloft at the synoptic hours of 0000, 0600, 1200, and 1800 UTC. In 1938 and 1939, France established a merchant ship as the first stationary weather ship, which took surface observations and launched [[radiosonde]]s to measure weather conditions aloft.<ref name="BritishShips">{{cite journal|url=https://digital.nmla.metoffice.gov.uk/IO_8503afc1-e154-45f3-9acd-8a79a5139726/|title=History of the British Ocean Weather Ships|author=Captain C. R. Downes|journal=The Marine Observer|year=1977|access-date=November 8, 2023|volume=XLVII|pages=179–186}}</ref>

Starting in 1939, [[United States Coast Guard]] vessels were being used as weather ships to protect transatlantic air commerce, as a response to the crash of [[Pan American World Airways]] ''[[Hawaii Clipper]]'' during a transpacific flight in 1938.<ref name="cg"/><ref name="map"/> The Atlantic Weather Observation Service was authorized by President [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]] on January 25, 1940.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Weather Bureau Topics|author=United States Weather Bureau|page=61|date=April 1952|volume=11|title=Atlantic Weather Project|issue=4|author-link=United States Weather Bureau}}</ref> The [[Nazi Germany|Germans]] began to use weather ships in the summer of 1940. However, three of their four ships had been sunk by November 23, which led to the use of fishing vessels for the German weather ship fleet. Their weather ships were out to sea for three to five weeks at a time and German weather observations were [[encryption|encrypted]] using [[Enigma machine]]s.<ref name="german">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KO8crflI8AMC&pg=PA150|title=Seizing the enigma: the race to break the German U-boat codes, 1939–1943|author=David Kahn|pages=149–152|isbn=978-0-7607-0863-7|publisher=Barnes & Noble Publishing|year=2001}}</ref> By February 1941, five {{convert|327|ft|m|adj=on}} United States Coast Guard [[Cutter (boat)#Customs services|cutters]] were used in weather patrol, usually deployed for three weeks at a time, then sent back to port for ten days. As World War II continued, the cutters were needed for the war effort and by August 1942, six [[cargo ship|cargo vessels]] had replaced them. The ships were fitted with two deck guns, anti-aircraft guns, and depth charges, but lacked SONAR (Asdic), Radar, and HF/DF, which may have contributed to the loss of the [[USS Muskeget (AG-48)|USCGC ''Muskeget'' (WAG-48)]] with 121 aboard on September 9, 1942. In 1943, the [[United States Weather Bureau]] recognized their observations as "indispensable" during the war effort.<ref name="cg"/>

The flying of fighter planes between North America, Greenland, and [[Iceland]] led to the deployment of two more weather ships in 1943 and 1944. Great Britain established one of their own {{convert|80|km|mi}} off their west coast. By May 1945, [[Frigate#World War II|frigates]] were used across the Pacific for similar operations. Weather Bureau personnel stationed on weather ships were asked voluntarily to accept the assignment. In addition to surface weather observations, the weather ships would launch radiosondes and release pilot balloons, or PIBALs, to determine weather conditions aloft. However, after the war ended, the ships were withdrawn from service, which led to a loss of upper air weather observations over the oceans.<ref name="BritishShips"/> Due to its value, operations resumed after World War II as a result of an international agreement made in September 1946, which stated that no fewer than 13 ocean weather stations would be maintained by the Coast Guard, with five others maintained by Great Britain and two by [[Brazil]].<ref name="cg">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T5A9LCujs08C&pg=PA129|pages=127–130|author=Malcolm Francis Willoughby|title=The U.S. Coast Guard in World War II|publisher=Ayer Publishing|year=1980|isbn=978-0-405-13081-6}}</ref>