A NOAA Lockheed WP-3D Orion (N42RF) prepares to fly over the Gulf of Mexico on May 21, 2010, to deploy probes that will aid researchers at NOAA and the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Research in monitoring the Loop Current. The aircraft is based at the NOAA Aircraft Operations Center at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla. Credit: NOAA. As the nation’s leading scientific resource for oil spills, NOAA has been on the scene of the BP spill from the start, providing coordinated scientific weather and biological response services to federal, state, and local organizations.