# NDBC — National Data Buoy Center

**Canonical:** https://apis.io/providers/ndbc/  
**Website:** https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/  
**APIs profiled:** 5

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.

## Kin Score — 12.8 / 100 (emerging)

Scored 2026-08-20 under rubric 0.12.0. Trend: flat (+0.0 from 12.8).

| Facet | Score |
|---|---|
| Discoverability | 74.1 |
| Contract Quality | 0.0 |
| Governance | 0.0 |
| Contract Governance | 0.0 |
| Operational Transparency | 0.0 |
| Developer Ergonomics | 19.0 |
| Commercial Clarity | 10.5 |
| Access Clarity | 10.5 |

Regulatory layer — **Government & Public Sector**: 18.5 (matched via tags).

## Agent readiness — 3.0 (human-only)

| Dimension | Value |
|---|---|
| Spec Presence | no |
| Agentic Access | no |
| Reversibility Documented | no |
| MCP Server | no |
| Auth Clarity | no |
| Idempotency | no |
| Error Semantics | no |
| OpenAPI Examples | no |
| Rate Limit Signal | documented |
| Event Surface Described | no |
| Agent Skills | no |
| Well Known Catalog | no |
| Consent Identity | no |
| Agent Card | no |
| Dry Run Mode | no |

## Access

Open access — onboarding: open, pricing: unknown, trial: no (confidence: medium).

## APIs (5)

- **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...

## Security (1)

- **Ndbc Domain Security** — TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DNSSEC · DMARC

## Tags

NOAA, Marine, Buoys, Ocean, Weather, Waves, Meteorological, Oceanographic, Real-Time, Historical, Government, Open Data

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Profiled by [API Evangelist](https://apievangelist.com) and published on [APIs.io](https://apis.io/providers/ndbc/). Scores are computed from the provider's own public artifacts under a published rubric.