NDBC — National Data Buoy Center website screenshot

NDBC — National Data Buoy Center

The NOAA National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) operates a global network of over 1,000 moored buoys, drifting buoys, Coastal-Marine Automated Network (C-MAN) stations, and partner stations that continuously measure and transmit meteorological and oceanographic conditions. Real-time and historical data — wind direction and speed, wave height and period, sea surface temperature, atmospheric pressure, air temperature, dew point, visibility, and salinity — are distributed freely via HTTP file URLs, a THREDDS/OPeNDAP server (NetCDF), an RSS observation feed, and a latest-observations snapshot updated every five minutes. No API key or authentication is required; data is in the public domain under U.S. government open-data policy.

5 APIs 0 Features
NOAAMarineBuoysOceanWeatherWavesMeteorologicalOceanographicReal-TimeHistoricalGovernmentOpen Data

APIs

NDBC Real-Time Data Service

Provides access to the last 45 days of meteorological and oceanographic observations from NDBC moored buoys and C-MAN coastal stations. Data files are served via HTTPS at https:...

NDBC Latest Observations Service

Delivers a consolidated snapshot of the most recent observation from every active NDBC and partner station, refreshed every five minutes. The flat text file at https://www.ndbc....

NDBC Historical Archive Service

Provides quality-controlled historical observations from NDBC stations organized as annual files (prior years) and monthly files (current year) accessible at https://www.ndbc.no...

NDBC THREDDS/OPeNDAP NetCDF Service

Exposes NDBC station time-series data as NetCDF files through a THREDDS Data Server (TDS) at https://dods.ndbc.noaa.gov/ using the OPeNDAP protocol. Dataset categories include s...

NDBC HF Radar Surface Currents Service

Provides near-real-time ocean surface current speeds and directions derived from High-Frequency (HF) radar systems operated by NDBC and partner networks in various nearshore are...

Resources

🌐
Portal
Portal
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Documentation
Documentation
🔗
Documentation
Documentation
🔗
Documentation
Documentation
🔗
Documentation
Documentation
🔗
Contact
Contact
📜
PrivacyPolicy
PrivacyPolicy
📜
TermsOfService
TermsOfService
🔗
Plans
Plans
🔗
RateLimits
RateLimits
🔗
FinOps
FinOps

Sources

apis.yml Raw ↑ 
aid: ndbc
name: NDBC — National Data Buoy Center
description: The NOAA National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) operates a global network of over 1,000 moored buoys, drifting buoys,
  Coastal-Marine Automated Network (C-MAN) stations, and partner stations that continuously measure and transmit meteorological
  and oceanographic conditions. Real-time and historical data — wind direction and speed, wave height and period, sea surface
  temperature, atmospheric pressure, air temperature, dew point, visibility, and salinity — are distributed freely via HTTP
  file URLs, a THREDDS/OPeNDAP server (NetCDF), an RSS observation feed, and a latest-observations snapshot updated every
  five minutes. No API key or authentication is required; data is in the public domain under U.S. government open-data policy.
image: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/images/nws/nws_logo.png
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/ndbc/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
access: 3rd-Party
created: '2026-06-13'
modified: '2026-06-13'
position: Consumer
specificationVersion: '0.19'
tags:
- NOAA
- Marine
- Buoys
- Ocean
- Weather
- Waves
- Meteorological
- Oceanographic
- Real-Time
- Historical
- Government
- Open Data
apis:
- aid: ndbc:realtime-data-service
  name: NDBC Real-Time Data Service
  description: Provides access to the last 45 days of meteorological and oceanographic observations from NDBC moored buoys
    and C-MAN coastal stations. Data files are served via HTTPS at https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/data/realtime2/ and named by
    station identifier and measurement type (e.g., 41002.txt for standard meteorology, 41002.spec for spectral wave summaries).
    Measurement types include standard meteorology (wind, pressure, temperature, waves), continuous winds, spectral wave data
    (summaries, raw energy density, directional components), ADCP currents, oceanographic parameters, and tide data. Most
    stations report hourly; data typically appears within 25 minutes after the hour. Missing values are represented as MM.
  image: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/images/nws/nws_logo.png
  humanURL: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/faq/rt_data_access.shtml
  baseURL: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/data/realtime2
  tags:
  - Real-Time
  - Buoys
  - Meteorological
  - Oceanographic
  - Waves
  - Winds
  - Temperature
  - Pressure
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/faq/rt_data_access.shtml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/docs/ndbc_web_data_guide.pdf
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/faq/measdes.shtml
  - type: BaseURL
    url: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/data/realtime2/
  contact:
  - FN: NDBC Webmaster
    email: webmaster.ndbc@noaa.gov
  x-products:
  - name: Free
    url: /plans/free.md
  x-rate-limits:
  - url: /rate-limits/rate-limits.md
  x-finops:
  - url: /finops/finops.md
- aid: ndbc:latest-observations-service
  name: NDBC Latest Observations Service
  description: Delivers a consolidated snapshot of the most recent observation from every active NDBC and partner station,
    refreshed every five minutes. The flat text file at https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/data/latest_obs/latest_obs.txt contains
    23 columns (station ID, latitude, longitude, UTC timestamp, wind direction and speed, gust, wave height, dominant and
    average wave period, mean wave direction, atmospheric pressure, pressure tendency, air temperature, water temperature,
    dew point, visibility, and tide). Per-station RSS files and a geographic observation search RSS feed are also available.
    No authentication required.
  image: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/images/nws/nws_logo.png
  humanURL: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/faq/rss_access.shtml
  baseURL: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/data/latest_obs
  tags:
  - Latest Observations
  - Real-Time
  - All Stations
  - RSS
  - Snapshot
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/faq/rss_access.shtml
  - type: BaseURL
    url: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/data/latest_obs/latest_obs.txt
  - type: BaseURL
    url: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/rss/ndbc_obs_search.php
  contact:
  - FN: NDBC Webmaster
    email: webmaster.ndbc@noaa.gov
- aid: ndbc:historical-archive-service
  name: NDBC Historical Archive Service
  description: 'Provides quality-controlled historical observations from NDBC stations organized as annual files (prior years)
    and monthly files (current year) accessible at https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/data/historical/. Measurement categories mirror
    the real-time service: standard meteorology, continuous winds, spectral wave data, ADCP currents, and oceanographic parameters.
    Data formats and column definitions are identical to the real-time files except that missing values use variable counts
    of nines (999, 9999, 99.0) rather than MM. A web-based historical observation search is available at histsearch.php and
    climatic summaries at climate.php.'
  image: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/images/nws/nws_logo.png
  humanURL: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/faq/archive.shtml
  baseURL: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/data/historical
  tags:
  - Historical
  - Archive
  - Climate
  - Quality-Controlled
  - Annual
  - Monthly
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/faq/archive.shtml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/faq/measdes.shtml
  - type: BaseURL
    url: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/data/historical/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/histsearch.php
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/climate.php
  contact:
  - FN: NDBC Webmaster
    email: webmaster.ndbc@noaa.gov
- aid: ndbc:thredds-netcdf-service
  name: NDBC THREDDS/OPeNDAP NetCDF Service
  description: Exposes NDBC station time-series data as NetCDF files through a THREDDS Data Server (TDS) at https://dods.ndbc.noaa.gov/
    using the OPeNDAP protocol. Dataset categories include standard meteorology (stdmet), continuous winds (cwind), spectral
    wave density (swden), acoustic Doppler current profiler (adcp, adcp2), oceanographic (ocean), water level (wlevel), DART
    tsunami (dart), and peak/mean currents (pwind, mmbcur). Files follow the naming pattern SSSSStYYYY.nc; real-time files
    use year 9999. An OceanSITES-format TAO buoy collection and HF Radar surface currents are also available via the same
    server.
  image: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/images/nws/nws_logo.png
  humanURL: https://dods.ndbc.noaa.gov/
  baseURL: https://dods.ndbc.noaa.gov
  tags:
  - NetCDF
  - THREDDS
  - OPeNDAP
  - Scientific Data
  - Currents
  - Tsunami
  - OceanSITES
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://dods.ndbc.noaa.gov/
  - type: BaseURL
    url: https://dods.ndbc.noaa.gov/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://dods.ndbc.noaa.gov/oceansites/
  contact:
  - FN: NDBC Webmaster
    email: webmaster.ndbc@noaa.gov
- aid: ndbc:hf-radar-service
  name: NDBC HF Radar Surface Currents Service
  description: Provides near-real-time ocean surface current speeds and directions derived from High-Frequency (HF) radar
    systems operated by NDBC and partner networks in various nearshore areas of the United States. Both hourly and 25-hour
    averaged current products are available. The service is accessible at https://hfradar.ndbc.noaa.gov/ and integrates with
    the broader NDBC station data infrastructure. Data supports maritime safety, search and rescue operations, and coastal
    oceanographic research.
  image: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/images/nws/nws_logo.png
  humanURL: https://hfradar.ndbc.noaa.gov/
  baseURL: https://hfradar.ndbc.noaa.gov
  tags:
  - HF Radar
  - Surface Currents
  - Coastal
  - Nearshore
  - Real-Time
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://hfradar.ndbc.noaa.gov/
  - type: BaseURL
    url: https://hfradar.ndbc.noaa.gov/
  contact:
  - FN: NDBC Webmaster
    email: webmaster.ndbc@noaa.gov
common:
- type: Portal
  url: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/docs/ndbc_web_data_guide.pdf
- type: Documentation
  url: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/faq/rt_data_access.shtml
- type: Documentation
  url: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/faq/measdes.shtml
- type: Documentation
  url: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/faq/stations.shtml
- type: Contact
  url: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/contacts.shtml
- type: PrivacyPolicy
  url: https://www.noaa.gov/privacy-policy
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://www.noaa.gov/disclaimer
- type: Plans
  url: /plans/free.md
- type: RateLimits
  url: /rate-limits/rate-limits.md
- type: FinOps
  url: /finops/finops.md
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com