Ecology · Ocean observations · NOAA
NDBC — National Data Buoy Center
Explore decades of ocean temperature, winds and waves from NOAA marine buoys and coastal stations.
Syntax
NDBC("station","variable")
NDBC("station","variable",startYear,endYear)
NDBC("station","variable",startYear,endYear,minSamples)Station accepts a literal ID or a string-valued expression such as EXTRACT(search,"station_id:0"); variable is a literal string. Years and the optional positive minimum sample count are integer expressions.
Defaults: January 1, 2000 through today in UTC; at least one valid sample per daily value.
Explicit years are inclusive. The current year ends today; future years are rejected. Alias: NOAA_BUOY.
Examples
water=NDBC("42040","WTMP",2000,2025)
waterNDBC_SEARCH("Cape Elizabeth")
NDBC_META("46041")
ocean=NDBC("46041","WTMP",2010,2025,12)
EXTRACT(ocean,"coverage")
EXTRACT(ocean,"data")Use the coverage report before modeling. These examples request observations; sensor availability varies by station and year.
Measurements and units
| Code | Measurement | Units |
|---|---|---|
WDIR | Wind direction | degrees true |
WSPD | Wind speed | m/s |
GST | Wind gust | m/s |
WVHT | Significant wave height | m |
DPD | Dominant wave period | seconds |
APD | Average wave period | seconds |
MWD | Mean wave direction | degrees true |
PRES | Sea level pressure | hPa |
ATMP | Air temperature | degrees C |
WTMP | Water temperature | degrees C |
DEWP | Dew point | degrees C |
VIS | Visibility | nautical miles |
PTDY | Three-hour pressure tendency | hPa |
TIDE | Water level relative to MLLW | feet |
Aliases include WATER_TEMPERATURE or TEMPERATURE for WTMP, AIR_TEMPERATURE for ATMP, WIND_SPEED for WSPD, WIND_DIRECTION for WDIR, WAVE_HEIGHT for WVHT and PRESSURE for PRES. Legacy BAR and WD file columns are recognized automatically. Standard meteorological files do not provide every station's specialized sensors.
Solar regression from the station location
water=NDBC("42040","WTMP",2000,2025)
location=EXTRACT(water,"GEOLOCATION")
sun=SOLAR(water,location)
radiation=EXTRACT(sun,"RADIATION")
fit=REGRESSION(water,radiation)
EXTRACT(fit,"slideshow")GEOLOCATION returns a geographic object directly accepted by SOLAR. Aliases: GEO_LOCATION and LOCATION. Coordinates come from the station catalogue. UTC and elevation 0 meters are computational defaults, not measured sensor height or water depth. Catalogue coordinates may differ from older deployments. Solar radiation here is calculated extraterrestrial irradiation, not measured sunlight at the buoy.
Ecological questions
Thermal exposure: investigate seasonal warming, unusually warm periods and time above a species-specific threshold. A marine heatwave requires an explicit location- and season-specific baseline and event definition; an arbitrary temperature cutoff is not equivalent.
Storm disturbance: compare winds, wave height and temperature before and after storms to examine cooling and recovery.
Fisheries and habitat: join coastal conditions to appropriate biological records, including fish returns, with justified spatial matches and migration lags. Ordinary correlation does not establish causation. Control seasonality and serial correlation.
Wind direction and temperature can help investigate coastal cooling, but a buoy alone does not directly measure upwelling transport, harmful algae, dissolved oxygen, nutrient concentrations or population health.
Time, aggregation and gaps
The returned object is a native daily series for arithmetic, charts and statistical analysis.
Original timestamps remain available with EXTRACT(result,"raw").
Daily means use available samples in each UTC day. Wind and wave directions use circular means; an undefined resultant is omitted.
Sample weighting can change when the reporting interval changes. The minimum sample count does not ensure full-day coverage.
Missing placeholders are removed by field. Missing days are omitted and never interpolated. Lag operators on an irregular series may represent retained observations rather than elapsed days: align calendars deliberately.
Sources, persistence and quality
Only requested stations are downloaded. Complete standard meteorological files are stored, so other measurements can reuse the same files. Annual archives refresh after 30 days, monthly files after one day, the station list after one day and today's rolling snapshot after one hour. Saved realtime snapshots are retained to preserve data that leave NOAA's rolling feed. Historical QC observations override realtime observations at matching timestamps.
An absent archive or measurement is reported in coverage. Network errors use a saved copy when available and flag it as stale; otherwise the request fails rather than silently presenting an incomplete download as complete. Older realtime snapshots are retained without an automatic deletion policy.
Station relocation, replacement, sensor depth and instrument changes can affect long-term comparisons. NDBC_META provides catalogue details and links to NOAA's full station history; catalogue membership does not prove current operation.
Available extracts
Save the command result in a variable, then use EXTRACT(result, "key"). Availability can depend on the input form and fitted model.
datarawsolarcoveragesourcewarningssummaryGEOLOCATIONGEO_LOCATIONLOCATION
In indexed patterns such as beta:n, replace n with the required index.