For example, environmental conditions can influence sensitive missile guidance systems, altering a projectile's course and causing it to miss the intended target. To ensure the success of a missile strike, commanders examine meteorological information and may choose to increase the number of missiles deployed for a specific mission. When missile inventory diminishes, accurate weather data can help commanders determine the optimum number of missiles to deploy to complete the mission successfully. Missile targeting also depends on the platforms from which they are launched. Submarine commanders must be acutely aware of sea and atmospheric conditions to ensure that, once fired, a missile will reach its intended mark.
Rough seas introduce unpredictability.
Meteorology and oceanography are examined in tandem because they are interdependent and involve the same principles of fluid dynamics. The convergence of these two studies specifically benefits naval operations. Submarines rely on their surrounding environment to maintain the secrecy of their positions as well as track adversaries. Small watercraft scheduled for operations near beaches and in littoral zones must know the predicted environment of the area both above and below them. Special operations teams need data about the degree of bioluminescence in a body of water as well as weather conditions to set ashore successfully and unnoticed.