There are many government departments, agencies and offices. More, in fact, than you probably actually know by name. Some agencies, such as the Census Bureau, the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are widely known by most Americans. However, there are some obscure agencies that accomplish important tasks but don’t receive the widespread publicity of many other offices of our government.
Each major department of our government has different agencies under its management. In the Department of Commerce, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration exists. Known as NOAA, this agency focuses mainly on ocean conditions and weather conditions within the United States. NOAA also has agencies under its management, such as the U.S. National Geodetic Survey. This group concentrates of managing our country’s coordinate system, as well as creating highly accurate charts and maps of both land and water.
As the name suggests, many of the employees are trained surveyors, using a variety of surveying tools such as theodolites, inclinometers and total stations. Among the many tasks of this agency are providing the exact location of airports and runways, as well as quickly providing aerial images of areas affect by any type of natural disaster and providing pinpoint locations as to what areas are most affected.
Measurement and weight have many commercial applications, so the U.S. Department of Commerce also maintains an agency called the National Institute of Standards and Technology or NIST. Employees and scientists at NIST are primarily concerned with the science of measurement, which is known as metrology. In addition to publishing a yearly handbook listing all the uniform measures and weights and methods of inspection for goods imported and exported, NIST runs a variety of laboratories and scientific centers. One of the best known is an NIST lab in Boulder, Colorado, which among its many duties is responsible for setting our country’s official time using the atomic clock.
The Department of Energy also operates a variety of different types of laboratories and technology centers at various locations throughout the country. The Los Alamos National Laboratory is perhaps the most notorious, and it is here that the Manhattan Project was based. The other national laboratories include several accelerator labs where scientists study high-energy particle physics. There is also a National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, and as well as labs that focus on environmental remediation and plasma physics.
The definition of clandestine is that of an adjective that describes something kept secret, and the U.S. government has many agencies that deal with clandestine operations. The Defense Clandestine Service is probably the most obscure, unknown to most U.S. citizens. Those that work at this service as espionage agents or spies that are often on the ground in countries such as China, Iran and other nations. They gather intelligence for other defense agencies, and this service is actually part of a larger organization called the Defense Intelligence Agency, a group that is almost equally unknown to most of us in the United States.
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