The
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) took the responsibility to operate an international network of ocean weather stations in the north Atlantic. The network was established in 1948 and consisted of 13 stations, including station M. The need for weather ships from civil aviation decreased gradually while meteorological societies still needed observations from the oceans. In 1974 the
World Meteorological Organization (WMO) took responsibility for the four remaining stations. The international agreement about weather ships was ended in 1990. The
United Kingdom and
Norway continued the operation of one station each, station L ("Lima"), west of
Scotland, and station M, in the
Norwegian Sea. Station L was ended in the middle of the 1990s. Thus station M was the only one still remaining. The first two weather ships to man station M were
Polarfront I and
Polarfront II. The Norwegian authorities were the ship owners. The ships were rebuilt
Royal Navy corvettes ( and ). They served until 1974 and 1976, respectively. In 1974 the Norwegian state made an agreement with the shipping company Misje Offshore Marine AS in
Bergen to hire a new and modern ship, which was given the name
Polarfront. For several years the ship alternated with the Dutch weather ship
Cumulus to staff station M. From 1986 on
Polarfront staffed station M alone. Each month
Polarfront left the station for one to two days to take on a new crew and new supplies. Once a year, usually in early October, the ship stayed in its home port for a week to carry out maintenance. == References ==