Navy Weather and Ocean charts available to Educators via the open Internet for use in classroom training

The Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) in Monterey, CA, is the Defense Department's primary central production site for operational numerical weather and ocean analyses and forecasts worldwide. Each day, Fleet Numerical provides over 450,000 computer-generated products to users around the world through a variety of communication links, including dial-up networks and the Internet. In recent years, the Internet has increasingly become the distribution channel of choice. A by-product of this technology has been the ability to make many unique products available to the general public on Fleet Numerical's Web site (www.fnmoc.navy.mil). Available weather and ocean charts include worldwide analyses and forecasts up to six days ahead of surface pressure, precipitation, air temperature, winds, upper air patterns, sea heights/directions, and ocean temperatures/anomalies. General information about Fleet Numerical and links to other military weather and ocean information sites are also available at www.fnmoc.navy.mil. This paper will discuss the specific Fleet Numerical products that are available on the World Wide Web, with particular emphasis on those which could be useful in a classroom environment when teaching concepts in basic meteorology and oceanography.