The
United
States Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO)
is located at John C. Stennis Space Center,
Mississippi, a unique federal complex managed
by NASA. At Stennis ocean-environmental scientists
engaged in research and development activities
collaborate with operational and scientific
organizations and high-technology commercial
companies. Resident agencies include the Naval
Meteorology and Oceanography Command Headquarters,
NAVOCEANO (with the Matthew Fontaine Maury Oceanographic
Library), the Naval Research Laboratory, the
Navy's Major Shared Resource Center (supercomputing
and visualization), the Navy's Riverine Warfare
Special Boat Unit, the Naval Small Craft Instruction
and Technical Training School, the National
Data Buoy Center, and NASA's Commercial Remote
Sensing Program Office.
Courses
are taught at the Stennis Space Center "campus"
of USM. The program's proximity to NAVOCEANO,
the Navy's Center of Hydrographic Expertise,
affords individuals a unique opportunity to
work with a wide range of state-of-the-art equipment
and to become involved with concepts of data
collection and near-real-time, all-source data-fusion
production employed by this global operation.
Laboratory courses are taught at Stennis Space
Center and along the Mississippi Gulf Coast,
and field surveying exercises are taught in
the Northern Gulf of Mexico Littoral Region.
Additional information about Navy facilities
in the area is contained in the section that
follows.
International
Hydrographic Management and Engineering Program
The Cooperative Surveys Division of NAVOCEANO
is responsible for the development of cooperative
arrangements with other organizations and nations
that results in hydrographic data collection
projects. To facilitate this mission and to
enhance hydrography worldwide, the International
Hydrographic Management and Engineering Program
(IHMEP) was established. IHMEP is sponsored
by the Training Department of NAVOCEANO and
was established to provide practical and professional
knowledge in hydrographic survey management
and engineering. The complete six-month course
meets the Category B Level requirements established
by the FIG/IHO International Advisory Board.
The
mission of this program is to provide the students
with a working knowledge of hydrography and
hydrographic surveying skills through practical
application of geodetic and hydrographic surveying
principles, data reduction, processing, smooth
sheet, and nautical chart production through
training in a laboratory environment. When this
knowledge is followed by appropriate survey
experience, the students will be able to carry
out basic hydrographic survey work within harbors
and near coasts.
From
1952 to 1981, NAVOCEANO conducted a long-term,
formal training program in hydrography and oceanography
for international officers and government civilians.
Over 350 students from 45 countries attended
the program. In 1981, the program was incorporated
into the two-year graduate program at the Naval
Postgraduate School in Monterey, California,
and was no longer offered at NAVOCEANO. However,
there was still a need for a short-term hydrography
course, and in 1984 NAVOCEANO received authorization
to establish the shorter program. The first
class under the new program, now called IHMEP,
began in the spring of 1986. In 1989, the IHMEP
received formal recognition by the FIG/IHO International
Advisory Board on Standards of Competence for
Hydrographic Surveyors at the Category B level.
This recognition was renewed in 1999. Since
1986, the program has graduated 146 students
from 35 countries.
