DART PFEL Air/Ocean Daily Data from NOAA Moored Buoys

Data Courtesy of NMFS, Pacific Fisheries Environmental Laboratory

Ocean Moored Buoys Queries

Select Output Format


Select Year, Location

The year following the location indicates earliest data available.


Set Date Range

Select Date Range Type 

Start Year
End Year

Displayed year values are determined by selections for: Year and Date Range Type.


Query Notes

  1. The year following the project indicates earliest data available.
  2. For Winter runs, select Year for the start year, select "Span Calendar Years" for Date Range Type, and enter Start Date and End Date for Date Range. Date Range years are determined by selections for Year and Date Range Type.
  3. To generate the Data Link for querying results directly from scripts and automated processes: make all selections, check "Generate Query Result Link Only" next to the Submit button, and click Submit.

Notes on the DART Ocean Moored Buoys Dataset

Air/Ocean Data from NOAA Moored Buoys provided by PFEL

As a value added data product, PFEL provides processed moored buoy data. These data contain hourly and daily mean values of air temperature, sea temperature, surface atmospheric pressure, wind speed, and wind direction. Sources of the data are 22 different NOAA NDBC moored buoys along the North American west coast. The data has been processed from the raw hourly data files. The processed buoy data is updated semi-annually by PFEL.

National Data Buoy Center Maps

Data Variable Notes

  • V Wind and U Wind are the vector wind northward and eastward components, respectively. Winds are in "ocean convention", i.e., direction blowing to.
  • Daily average Wind Speed is calculated by meaning the hourly speeds rather than from the daily mean so it differs from the V Wind and U Wind speed.

NOAA/National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) Moored Buoy Program

Moored buoys are the weather sentinels of the sea. They are deployed in the coastal and offshore waters from the western Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean around Hawaii, and from the Bering Sea to the South Pacific. NDBC's moored buoys measure and transmit barometric pressure; wind direction, speed, and gust; air and sea temperature; and wave energy spectra from which significant wave height, dominant wave period, and average wave period are derived. Even the direction of wave propagation is measured on many moored buoys.

In addition to their use in operational forecasting, warnings, and atmospheric models, moored buoy data are used for scientific and research programs, emergency response to chemical spills, legal proceedings, and engineering design.1

1 Text from the NDBC Moored Buoy Program web page, http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/mooredbuoy.shtml.