Environmental Science Services Administration

Environmental Science Services Administration
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Agency overview
Formed	on July 13, 1965
Preceding agencies	United States Weather Bureau; United States Coast and Geodetic Survey;
Dissolved	on October 3, 1970
Superseding agency	National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration;
Jurisdiction	United States federal government
Headquarters	Rockville, Maryland
Agency executive	Robert M. White, Administrator (1965–1970);
Parent agency	U.S. Department of Commerce
Child agencies	U.S. ESSA Commissioned Officer Corps United States Weather Bureau; United States Coast and Geodetic Survey; ;

Vice Admiral H. Arnold Karo was Deputy Administrator of ESSA from 1965 to 1967.

The Environmental Science Services Administration (ESSA) was a United States Federal executive agency created in 1965 as part of a reorganization of the United States Department of Commerce.^[1] Its mission was to unify and oversee the meteorological, climatological, hydrographic, and geodetic operations of the United States. It operated until 1970, when it was replaced by the new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The first U.S. Government organization with the word "environment" in its title,^[2] ESSA was the first such organization chartered to study the global natural environment as whole, bringing together the study of the oceans with that of both the lower atmosphere and the ionosphere. This allowed the U.S. Government for the first time to take a comprehensive approach to studying the oceans and the atmosphere, also bringing together various technologies – ships, aircraft, satellites, radar, and communications systems – that could operate together in gathering data for scientific study.^[3]

^ Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1965.
^ "meteohistory.org "The Making of NOAA, 1963–2005: AN Evening With Robert M. White", transcription of presentation by Robert M. White at Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C., December 1, 2005, p. 58" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 14, 2014. Retrieved March 4, 2017.
^ "meteohistory.org "The Making of NOAA, 1963–2005: AN Evening With Robert M. White", transcription of presentation by Robert M. White at Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C., December 1, 2005, p. 59" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 14, 2014. Retrieved March 4, 2017.

[noaahistoryreorg21965-1] Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1965.

[white58-2] "meteohistory.org "The Making of NOAA, 1963–2005: AN Evening With Robert M. White", transcription of presentation by Robert M. White at Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C., December 1, 2005, p. 58" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 14, 2014. Retrieved March 4, 2017.

[white59-3] "meteohistory.org "The Making of NOAA, 1963–2005: AN Evening With Robert M. White", transcription of presentation by Robert M. White at Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C., December 1, 2005, p. 59" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 14, 2014. Retrieved March 4, 2017.

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