Crowley win 2011 Company Award by NOAA for providing meteorological data from their vessels at sea in the Voluntary Observing Ship Program (VOS)
Crowley Maritime Corporation has been selected as a 2011 Company Award winner for the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s Voluntary Observing Ship (VOS) program. The selection was based on Crowley's 48 vessels providing 204,430 highly accurate and timely weather observations for the U.S. VOS program in 2011. Particularly impressive was Crowley's St. Louis Express, a cargo vessel contributing 4,926 observations in 2011, ranking her the second-highest reporting vessel in the entire U.S. program.
The VOS program, which was established in 1853, relies on volunteer crewmembers on nearly 1,000 ships around the world to monitor the weather at their locations and submit the observations to national meteorological services. This data is used to create marine weather forecasts and is archived for future use by climatologists and other scientists.
Weather forecasters in the United States rely upon Crowley's reports heavily. These observations are used to produce the daily weather forecasts, charts, warnings, coastal-marine warnings and tropical-prediction forecasts which are distributed by NOAA's National Weather Service forecast offices, including the Tropical Analysis and Forecast branch, the Storm Prediction Center and the National Hurricane Center. Observations are also sent to all World Meteorological Organization partner countries to help produce global weather charts, advisories and forecasts imperative for the safe movement of private and commercial shipping.