NOAA Buoy Data


 The buoy-responder is a way to get real-time data from any NOAA buoy or 
 C-MAN station. You can send message to the buoy-responder with any five 
 digit buoy id and a data file with the previous 12 observations will 
 be returned within 12 minutes. The data files contains the last 12 reading 
 of wind speed and direction, wave height and period, surface pressure, 
 and air/water temperature. If you are traveling to areas where there 
 are buoys, you need this! For a complete list of buoys and more 
 information about the data, please visit the National Data Buoy Center 
 web site:

 http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/index.shtml

 To request buoy data, send a message to:

 buoy@buoyweather.com

 The subject line can be anything or blank. The message content will be 
 made up of four variables using this exact format: 

 noaabuoy
 username
 sendaddress
 buoyid

 Here is the sample(Georges Bank Buoy):

 noaabuoy
 joeblow@aol.com
 me@myboat.com
 44011

 The buoyweather buoy-responder returns the data file formatted as it is 
 on the NDBC server. A typical report will look like this(buoy 51028):

 YYYY MM DD hh WD  WSPD  GST  WVHT   DPD   APD MWD  BARO   ATMP  WTMP 
 2002 06 18 17 080  8.0  9.0   2.3     9    MM  MM 1007.0  28.1  28.4 
 2002 06 18 16 100 10.0 16.0    MM    MM    MM  MM 1006.3  25.9  28.4 
 2002 06 18 15 080  8.0 10.0   2.6     9    MM  MM 1005.6  28.1  28.4 
 2002 06 18 14 090  7.0 11.0   2.7     8    MM  MM 1005.6  27.4  28.4 
 2002 06 18 13 090  9.0 12.0   2.5     9    MM  MM 1005.6  26.6  28.4 
 2002 06 18 12 070  8.0  9.0   2.6     9    MM  MM 1006.1  27.6  28.4 
 2002 06 18 11 070  8.0 10.0   2.4     9    MM  MM 1006.4  27.7  28.4 
 2002 06 18 10 070  9.0 10.0   2.5     9    MM  MM 1006.9  28.1  28.4 
 2002 06 18 09 080  9.0 12.0   2.7     9    MM  MM 1007.1  27.6  28.4 
 2002 06 18 08 070  8.0  9.0   2.3     9    MM  MM 1007.2  27.4  28.4 
 2002 06 18 07 080  7.0  9.0   2.6     9    MM  MM 1006.9  28.4  28.5 
 2002 06 18 06 080  8.0  9.0   2.4     9    MM  MM 1006.3  28.4  28.5 

 An “MM” in a column means the data for that variable is not available 
 from the buoy. The Date and times are UTC. 

 ATMP - Air temperature (Celsius). 

 WTMP - Sea surface temperature (Celsius). 

 WSPD - Wind speed (m/s) averaged over an eight-minute period for buoys 
 and a two-minute period for land stations. Knots is close to two times 
 m/s. 

 WDIR - Wind direction (the direction the wind is coming from in 
 degrees clockwise from N) during the same period used for WSPD.

 GST - Peak 5 or 8 second gust speed (m/s) measured during the 
 eight-minute or two-minute period. 

 WVHT - Significant wave height (meters) is calculated as the average 
 of the highest one-third of all of the wave heights during the 
 20-minute sampling period. Some individual waves will be higher. 


 DPD - Dominant wave period (seconds) is the period with the maximum 
 wave energy.

 BARO - Sea level pressure (hPa). 

 APD - Average wave period (seconds) of all waves during the 20-minute 
 period. 

 MWD - Mean wave direction (degrees).