A global network of 13 weather ships was established in 1948 by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to improve the quality of meteorological data at sea. Prior to that, metocean data was solely collected by ships of opportunity, with variable data quality.
Weather ship data is now being superseded by satellites and metocean buoynetworks, although buoys are still relatively few and far between. The most important buoy networks are the NOAA-NDBC buoy networks in the USA (covering the east and west coasts of the USA, the Gulf of Mexico and the Hawaiian Islands), and the more recent Canadian network.
Other networks include the Japanese ODAS buoys in the Pacific, Sea of Japan and East China Sea; the Indian National Data Buoy Programme, which is currently probably the largest national program with deep ocean directional buoys used as standard; national networks in Spain, Greece, France, and Italy; the Norwegian network in the Barents Sea; Iceland; and Ireland.
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