The ‘Quick’ Version:
- Data is recorded by buoys and other weather instrumentation.
- That data is sent on a schedule (every 30-60 minutes) to a satellite.
- The satellite relays the data to NOAA and the NDBC.
- The NDBC checks the data and makes it available to the public.
- Our server downloads the NDBC/ NOAA data and stores it in a database.
- Bombora contacts our server and downloads the latest swell and other info.
- You see that the conditions are ripe, grab your boat, wetsuit, and boards and hit the road!
The instruments installed on moored buoys and at C-MAN sites generally transmit data to one of NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) each hour. The GOES relays the data message to the NESDIS Data Acquisition Processing System (DAPS) at Wallops Island, VA. Next, DAPS sends the data to the National Weather Service Telecommunications Gateway (NWSTG) where gross data quality control is performed before the data are distributed in meteorological codes in real time (i.e., usually in less than 30 minutes).
NWSTG also sends the raw satellite messages and the NWSTG quality controlled data to NDBC. At NDBC, the data are recomputed from the satellite message to verify the accuracy of the NWSTG processing stream. Then, the data are put through a series of stringent automated and manual checks. Data that pass all of these checks are deemed suitable for archival at the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) and the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC).
Because of the more stringent quality control performed by NDBC than by NWSTG, the data which NDBC archives are generally of better quality and are more complete than the data that are transmitted to the users by NWSTG in near real time. The measurements in the archive also are listed to a higher resolution. The differences can be attributed to the time constraints that NWSTG has to meet in order to distribute the data in real time.
(Source: National Data Buoy Center – http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/datfl.shtml)
How Data Gets From Buoy to Bombora