In the 1840s, its superintendent, Lieutenant Matthew Fontaine Maury, created and published a revolutionary series of ocean current and wind charts.

During World War I and the following decades, naval aerological specialists applied the fledgling concepts of air masses and fronts to warfare, and provided forecasts to the first transatlantic flight.

Hydrographic survey ships, often under enemy fire, collected data along foreign coastlines for the creation of critical navigation charts.

In the mid-1970s, the Navy's meteorology and oceanography programs were integrated in a single organization reflecting nature's close interaction of sea and air.

The Command's personnel are at its headquarters at the John C. Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and at several field activities around the world.

In 2020, Strike Group Oceanography Teams were established in San Diego and then Norfolk aligned under the respective Fleet Weather Centers.