National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

On October 3, 1970, President Richard Nixon signed a reorganization plan that merged three older federal agencies into a single entity: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Those agencies were the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (founded in 1807), the Weather Bureau (1870), and the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries (1871). NOAA's oldest ancestor, the Survey of the Coast, was America's first scientific agency, led by Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler. In 2012, a NOAA survey ship was named after Hassler.

Headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, NOAA employs thousands of scientists, engineers, and support staff across all 50 states and U.S. territories. The agency's fiscal year 2023 budget exceeded $6 billion. Its work touches more than one-third of America's gross domestic product, from daily weather forecasts to fisheries management to coastal restoration. NOAA operates the National Weather Service, a fleet of hurricane hunter aircraft, a network of environmental satellites, and research laboratories studying the ocean and atmosphere.

NOAA's six line offices include the National Weather Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Ocean Service, National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service, Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, and Office of Marine and Aviation Operations. The agency's mission is to understand and predict changes in climate, weather, ocean, and coasts, and to conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems. NOAA has been featured in documentaries like Chasing Ice and consulted for scientific accuracy in disaster films such as The Day After Tomorrow. [edit]