NDBC On-line Data Indices

The different types of data that you can find in the NDBC on-line archive are list below. A description of the data types and the units of each measurement is also provided. You may wish to check the latest data availability summary (last updated June, 2003) to find the dates for which data were collected at each station.

Data files for prior months and years have been compressed using the GNU gzip utility. If you do not have gzip, you may retrieve gzip sources and binaries from this server.

Access to the data from each individual station is available through the NDBC station maps or (if you know the station ID) through a station ID list or the Station ID Search at the top of the left side navigation bar.

• Real-time data
These are cumulative records from the last 45 days -- data are concatenated daily to the end of these files. The U.S. data have gone through automated quality control checks.


• Quality controlled data for the previous month
The previous month's data files are usually posted by the 15th of the current month. The type of data file names that are found in this archive consist of a 5 character WMO station identifier, followed by a ".txt" extension.
• Standard meteorological data and their description
• Continuous winds data and their description
• Spectral wave density data and their description
• Spectral mean wave direction data and their description
• Spectral principal wave direction data and their description
• Spectral wave directional constant R1 data and their description
• Spectral wave directional constant R2 data and their description
• Water level data and their description
• Tsunameter (DART) water level data and their description
• Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) data and their description
• Revised format Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) data and their description
• Surface ocean current data and their description
• Oceanographic data and their description
• Solar Radiation data and their description


• Quality controlled data for prior months of the current year
The type of data file names that are found in this archive consist of a 5 character WMO station identifier, followed by the month (single digit, Jan=1, Feb=2, ..., Sep=9, Oct=a, Nov=b, Dec=c) and 4 digit year. Monthly subdirectories (Jan, Feb, Mar, ...) contain all of the data from that month of the current year.

• Standard meteorological data and their description
• Continuous winds data and their description
• Spectral wave density data and their description
• Spectral mean wave direction data and their description
• Spectral principal wave direction data and their description
• Spectral wave directional constant R1 data and their description
• Spectral wave directional constant R2 data and their description
• Water level data and their description
• Tsunameter (DART) water level data and their description
• Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) data and their description
• Revised format Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) data and their description
• Surface ocean current data and their description
• Oceanographic data and their description
• Solar Radiation data and their description


• Historical data (previous years)
• Climatic data summary tables and plots
• Hurricane Data Collections and Plots