NOAA at 50

September 2020

 Companion story map  (508 compliant)

NOAA has been bringing science to life for 50 years.

It is NOAA's 50th Birthday!! 

NOAA was founded in 1970, and after five decades we head into the future as an innovative force, changing the way the world is viewed, serving as a vital pillar of U.S. economic growth and competitiveness, and enhancing the safety and the well-being of everyone in our Nation.

Of course, NOAA's culture and core values of science, service and stewardship took root well before 1970. We trace our lineage to 1807, when Thomas Jefferson established the Survey of the Coast, America’s first scientific agency. Over the last 50 years, NOAA's dedicated workforce has built upon the foundations of the Survey of the Coast and our other trailblazing legacy agencies, showing the value of bringing them together into a single agency.

As NOAA celebrates its  50th anniversary , we continue to pursue new scientific frontiers that stretch from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, advancing President Jefferson’s vision of a world where science and innovation flourish and serve the public good.

I hope you enjoy this story map, which celebrates our  heritage of science and service  and shows how it shaped some of our recent achievements.

Happy 50th, NOAA!

Building a Weather-Ready Nation

Hand-drawn in ink, this 1900 "after-the-fact" weather map is drawn mainly from the visual observations of weather station forecasters looking out the window and asking, "How cloudy is it today?"

At this 1899 Buffalo, NY forecast station, weather information relayed by weather observers via telegraph and telephone relied on rain gauges, thermometers and instruments measuring wind speed.

By the early 1920s, “signal flags” and the U.S. mail weren’t considered detailed and timely enough to forecast weather, and “weather bureau kiosks” such as this one in Washington, DC were placed in cities that had Weather Bureau offices. Each kiosk contained weather maps, forecasts and instruments for measuring temperature highs and lows, humidity and rainfall. But surrounded by buildings and concrete, temperatures were often warmer than the official forecast -- a Washington newspaper even declared the Capitol’s kiosk “guilty of false advertising.” Design also offered little protection from the weather itself and, by 1931, most of the kiosks were gone. 

 

Doppler's Revolutionary Effect

Only when war became likely did the U.S. recognize the potential of the promising new radar technology. This is a photo of a 1944 Mobile Doppler.

In 1973, researchers at NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory used an experimental Doppler radar to follow the full life cycle of a tornado. Originally a military radar seeking missiles, the "Norman Doppler" was converted to detect weather, and proved its value by detecting the rotation of storms associated with tornadoes. This radar led to NEXRAD, the national Doppler radar network. The National Weather Service installed the radar network in the early 1990s, and it's still in use today.   

   

Understanding Earth from Space

"TIROS-I, the world’s first successful weather satellite, was launched by NASA on April 1, 1960, marking one of the earliest efforts to see Earth’s weather from space. Equipped with two miniature television cameras, and circling Earth every 99 minutes, TIROS-1 gave weather forecasters their first-ever view of cloud formations developing around the globe. Linked to an extensive network of ground stations, TIROS-1 orbited 450 miles above Earth for 78 days, sending back nearly 20,000 useful pictures on 35-mm film. TIROS-1 pointed the way for NOAA’s current polar-orbiting satellites, the backbone of the  global observing system .

World-Class Computing

1960s computer key card storage "isle"

Cartoon published in the 1970s

Curious Robots Map Coastal Waters

In 1769, Benjamin Franklin published this first scientific chart of the Gulf Stream, a fast-moving current that sweeps up from Florida, then along the East Coast and across the Atlantic to Europe. Franklin called it “a river in the ocean,” and predicted that staying in this current could speed mail delivery to Europe and shave valuable time off long and often treacherous shipping routes. He produced this chart showing a darkened Gulf Stream, opening the potential to nearly double travel speed.

Using pre-World War II technology, hydrographers collected data by dropping a hand-held line weighted with 10-pound lead over the side of a vessel. Once it reached bottom, markings on the line enabled surveyors to manually record depth and map reference points. This laborious process yielded limited coverage, and information missed between measurements left vital safety features unmarked. NOAA is replacing paper charts from this era with  electronic charts  created for today's navigational systems. 

NOAA and its predecessor agencies have been collecting hydrographic data for nearly 200 years, always with a focus on time, position and depth. This photo, from the 1960s, shows the South Carolina shoreline being charted on paper on a light table. A plotter, or button on a wired pad, traced distances and contours of various shapes such as islands and sandbars. Digitized information was then stored electronically, in contrast with today’s use of  bathymetry  data collected by  sonar , in the air by  LIDAR , and in shallow coastal waters by the robots in this video.

 

Navigating Safely, Efficiently & Competitively

Safely navigating an extremely tight fit

Along with NOAA’s  nautical charts , NOAA’s  PORTS®  data are critical to mariners who must move cargo safely, cost-effectively and competitively while protecting natural resources. PORTS® serves nearly one-third of U.S. major ports, which generate more than $4 trillion annually. 

This cargo ship, for example, needed to transport very tall, wide cranes up the Chesapeake Bay to the Port of Baltimore. Weeks in advance, PORTS® tide and current predictions identified the ideal transit window. Days before transit, coastal forecasts showed that local conditions would not change water depth enough to affect bridge clearance. Right before reaching the bridge, real-time information ensured the ship would fit. 

For safe navigation, PORTS® data is combined with information on NOAA's Electronic Navigational Charts, which are essential to both commerce and recreational boaters. The charts are updated weekly. Click on the “viewer” below to see how NOAA continuously depicts coverage over U.S. coastal waters and the Great Lakes.

America's Marine Treasures

 National Marine Sanctuaries  and marine national monuments teem with life. Thousands of species have safe habitat, coral reefs and giant kelp forests flourish, whales and sharks migrate safely, and wilderness beaches can stretch for miles. The protected sites are research labs, magical classrooms and where divers give new life to historic shipwrecks and other deep archaeological sites.    

From the first sanctuary covering just one square mile, the sanctuary network now protects nearly 622,000 square miles of marine and Great Lakes waters. As the first preserve, the  Monitor National Marine Sanctuary , located off North Carolina’s coast, was designed in 1975. It’s the burial site of the USS Monitor, one of the most famous warships in U.S. history. Sunk in 1862, the turreted warship was discovered on the ocean floor more than a century later. The distinct turret and other artifacts have since been recovered and preserved. 

Below is a map of the magical sanctuary network. Dive in.

Positioning Our Nation's Future

Until the 1990s, an alidade, or telescope-like instrument, was used along with a plane table to manually map features such as those in this coastal marsh. Sensors on drones now do this work efficiently, cost-effectively and with greater precision.  

From 1900 to about 1960, survey teams relied on their eyes to read a graduated rod that measured height differences between benchmarks. Now a digital level instrument takes images of a barcode on a rod to obtain this measurement.

In 1934, a “light keeper” 110 feet above a survey mark in Minnesota aimed target lights at similar towers as surveyors below measured angles targeting lights at other towers. During this era, a network of towers was spread thousands of miles across the U.S, establishing latitude and longitude for thousands of survey marks. With GPS, anyone can now capture such coordinates with a cell phone.

Smart Sampling at NOAA Fisheries

This is Albatross I, said to be the first government vessel with electric lights. The first of an illustrious line of research vessels to be named Albatross, it was in service from 1882 to 1921.  NOAA Ship Bigelow, shown in the video, replaced the Albatross IV in 2008, marking the end of an era for research ships that bear the name Albatross. 

In the 1960s, species were sorted by hand. Dr. Robert Edwards, later director of the  Northeast Fisheries Science Center , is shown sampling fish aboard NOAA Ship Albatross IV. Working with paper logs on a clipboard, voice tallies could be drowned out by wind and waves and measurements were subject to human error. Innovative approaches and “smart labs" equipped with leading-edge technology are now modernizing fish sampling.  

Paper record in the 1990s

 

Dynamic Advances in Global Forecasting

The  Global Forecast System , NOAA’s flagship weather model, has been upgraded with a dynamical new core, an “engine” called FV3 that will improve forecast accuracy for severe weather, winter storms and tropical cyclone track and intensity. The upgrade will enable future advances in higher resolution and data quality control, among others.

Precipitation Forecast for Heavy Rain on West Coast, March 2018

NOAA Corps: In Command on Land, Sea and in the Air

In 1939, officers at U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, a NOAA legacy agency, used this taut wire machine to measure the distance between floating hydrographic survey markers. If measured from shore, the wire was attached to an anchor. If measured offshore, it was attached to a buoy. NOAA Corps officers now use GPS and aerial image analyses to accurately measure distances and characterize features on nautical charts.

“Shooting the sun” once helped ships stay on course. In this 1952 photo, a sextant, or navigation instrument, is used to measure the angle between the Sun and the horizon. This angle and the precise time it is measured can determine a ship’s position. Today NOAA Corps officers rely primarily on GPS and Electronic Navigation Charts to stay on course. But with cybersecurity a concern, celestial navigation is again being taught.

In 1973, then Ensign Evelyn Fields (third from left) joined other NOAA Corps members in performing bridge operations. In 1999, RADM Evelyn Fields became the first woman and first African American to become director of NOAA Corps and NOAA’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations.

Collaborating Across NOAA

From developing high tech global weather models to innovating machine vision that accurately and efficiently samples fish, NOAA's mission is sweeping and complex. Many of the complexities that drive this mission are place-based, requiring interdisciplinary approaches and regionally-tailored solutions that hit home where people live and work.

NOAA’s  Regional Collaboration Network  was formed in 2010. By engaging and connecting people and resources within and across regions, the network’s more than 165 NOAA staff and partners help push the boundaries of NOAA science, service and stewardship, providing rich insights that spur action and supporting and positioning NOAA to achieve the kinds of advances highlighted in this story map. 

Here's a sampling of 2019 accomplishments:

Produced 5-to-1 economic gains in Great Lakes restoration 

Reduced shellfish poisoning risks in the Arctic

Improved disaster resilience in the Southeast and Caribbean

Tested emergency response in the West

Bolstered fisheries management in the North Atlantic

Improved water quality throughout the Central region’s Mississippi River watershed

Strengthened preparedness and response in the Pacific Islands 

Facilitated data-sharing in the Gulf of Mexico, leading to better forecasting after tropical cyclones and, over time, faster FEMA claims adjustments at lower cost

Read more about regional initiatives in the  Regional Collaboration Network’s 2019 Accomplishments Report 

“The Survey of the Coast was born on the spirit and necessities of 1807 and grew as the nation grew... No doubt it would have been a point of pride with Jefferson to have played a part in the establishment of what is considered today the oldest scientific agency in the U.S. government.”

– Thomas Jefferson Foundation

NOAA Story Maps

 NOAA in Seattle , December 2019

 NOAA Boulder , October 2018

 Play It Safe , August 2018

 Our Ocean , June 2018

 The Power of the Crowd  (Citizen Science), April 2018

 Farming in Water , February 2018

Hand-drawn in ink, this 1900 "after-the-fact" weather map is drawn mainly from the visual observations of weather station forecasters looking out the window and asking, "How cloudy is it today?"

At this 1899 Buffalo, NY forecast station, weather information relayed by weather observers via telegraph and telephone relied on rain gauges, thermometers and instruments measuring wind speed.

By the early 1920s, “signal flags” and the U.S. mail weren’t considered detailed and timely enough to forecast weather, and “weather bureau kiosks” such as this one in Washington, DC were placed in cities that had Weather Bureau offices. Each kiosk contained weather maps, forecasts and instruments for measuring temperature highs and lows, humidity and rainfall. But surrounded by buildings and concrete, temperatures were often warmer than the official forecast -- a Washington newspaper even declared the Capitol’s kiosk “guilty of false advertising.” Design also offered little protection from the weather itself and, by 1931, most of the kiosks were gone. 

Only when war became likely did the U.S. recognize the potential of the promising new radar technology. This is a photo of a 1944 Mobile Doppler.

In 1973, researchers at NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory used an experimental Doppler radar to follow the full life cycle of a tornado. Originally a military radar seeking missiles, the "Norman Doppler" was converted to detect weather, and proved its value by detecting the rotation of storms associated with tornadoes. This radar led to NEXRAD, the national Doppler radar network. The National Weather Service installed the radar network in the early 1990s, and it's still in use today.   

"TIROS-I, the world’s first successful weather satellite, was launched by NASA on April 1, 1960, marking one of the earliest efforts to see Earth’s weather from space. Equipped with two miniature television cameras, and circling Earth every 99 minutes, TIROS-1 gave weather forecasters their first-ever view of cloud formations developing around the globe. Linked to an extensive network of ground stations, TIROS-1 orbited 450 miles above Earth for 78 days, sending back nearly 20,000 useful pictures on 35-mm film. TIROS-1 pointed the way for NOAA’s current polar-orbiting satellites, the backbone of the  global observing system .

1960s computer key card storage "isle"

Cartoon published in the 1970s

In 1769, Benjamin Franklin published this first scientific chart of the Gulf Stream, a fast-moving current that sweeps up from Florida, then along the East Coast and across the Atlantic to Europe. Franklin called it “a river in the ocean,” and predicted that staying in this current could speed mail delivery to Europe and shave valuable time off long and often treacherous shipping routes. He produced this chart showing a darkened Gulf Stream, opening the potential to nearly double travel speed.

Using pre-World War II technology, hydrographers collected data by dropping a hand-held line weighted with 10-pound lead over the side of a vessel. Once it reached bottom, markings on the line enabled surveyors to manually record depth and map reference points. This laborious process yielded limited coverage, and information missed between measurements left vital safety features unmarked. NOAA is replacing paper charts from this era with  electronic charts  created for today's navigational systems. 

NOAA and its predecessor agencies have been collecting hydrographic data for nearly 200 years, always with a focus on time, position and depth. This photo, from the 1960s, shows the South Carolina shoreline being charted on paper on a light table. A plotter, or button on a wired pad, traced distances and contours of various shapes such as islands and sandbars. Digitized information was then stored electronically, in contrast with today’s use of  bathymetry  data collected by  sonar , in the air by  LIDAR , and in shallow coastal waters by the robots in this video.

Safely navigating an extremely tight fit

Until the 1990s, an alidade, or telescope-like instrument, was used along with a plane table to manually map features such as those in this coastal marsh. Sensors on drones now do this work efficiently, cost-effectively and with greater precision.  

From 1900 to about 1960, survey teams relied on their eyes to read a graduated rod that measured height differences between benchmarks. Now a digital level instrument takes images of a barcode on a rod to obtain this measurement.

In 1934, a “light keeper” 110 feet above a survey mark in Minnesota aimed target lights at similar towers as surveyors below measured angles targeting lights at other towers. During this era, a network of towers was spread thousands of miles across the U.S, establishing latitude and longitude for thousands of survey marks. With GPS, anyone can now capture such coordinates with a cell phone.

This is Albatross I, said to be the first government vessel with electric lights. The first of an illustrious line of research vessels to be named Albatross, it was in service from 1882 to 1921.  NOAA Ship Bigelow, shown in the video, replaced the Albatross IV in 2008, marking the end of an era for research ships that bear the name Albatross. 

In the 1960s, species were sorted by hand. Dr. Robert Edwards, later director of the  Northeast Fisheries Science Center , is shown sampling fish aboard NOAA Ship Albatross IV. Working with paper logs on a clipboard, voice tallies could be drowned out by wind and waves and measurements were subject to human error. Innovative approaches and “smart labs" equipped with leading-edge technology are now modernizing fish sampling.  

Paper record in the 1990s

In 1939, officers at U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, a NOAA legacy agency, used this taut wire machine to measure the distance between floating hydrographic survey markers. If measured from shore, the wire was attached to an anchor. If measured offshore, it was attached to a buoy. NOAA Corps officers now use GPS and aerial image analyses to accurately measure distances and characterize features on nautical charts.

“Shooting the sun” once helped ships stay on course. In this 1952 photo, a sextant, or navigation instrument, is used to measure the angle between the Sun and the horizon. This angle and the precise time it is measured can determine a ship’s position. Today NOAA Corps officers rely primarily on GPS and Electronic Navigation Charts to stay on course. But with cybersecurity a concern, celestial navigation is again being taught.

In 1973, then Ensign Evelyn Fields (third from left) joined other NOAA Corps members in performing bridge operations. In 1999, RADM Evelyn Fields became the first woman and first African American to become director of NOAA Corps and NOAA’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations.