The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Marine Meteorology Division was formerly known as the Naval Environmental Prediction Research Facility (NEPRF). NEPRF was established in 1971, and functioned as a field activity of the (then) Naval Air Systems Command. It was later placed under the authority of the Chief of Naval Research in Washington, D.C.

In 1989, NEPRF's status and designation changed when it was combined with the Naval Oceanographic Research and Development Activity and the Institute for Naval Oceanography--both located at the Stennis Space Center, MS--and formed a single naval ocean sciences laboratory, NOARL.

Finally, in 1992, as a continuation of the Department of Defense (DoD) laboratory consolidation initiative, NOARL was incorporated into NRL--headquartered in Washington DC--and the Atmospheric Directorate became the Marine Meteorology Division. Today, NRL Monterey is the only scienific center in the Navy to be wholly dedicated to atmospheric research.