Notice: NDBC plans to conduct testing of its DART (tsunameter) network the week of January 12-16, 2009. Click here for details.

How are the 5 day data files formated and how can the files be used?

Standard Meteorological Files

The files are named: STATION_5day.txt (where STATION is the uppercase station id)

The files have a one line header of the form:
YYYY MM DD hh WD WSPD GST WVHT DPD APD MWD BARO ATMP WTMP DEWP VIS PTDY TIDE

The data that follows the header line are the measurement data for that station for the last 5 days (provided data exists). Data description

Continuous Wind Files

The files are named: STATION_5day.cwind (where STATION is the uppercase station id)

The files have a one line header of the form:
YYYY MM DD hh mm DIR SPD GDR GSP GMN

The data that follows the header line are the measurement data for that station for the last 5 days (provided data exists). Data description

Spectral Wave Files

The files are named: STATION_5day.spectral (where STATION is the uppercase station id)

The files have a two line header of the form:
YYYY MM DD hh mm bands
freq bandwidth energy r1 r2 alpha1 alpha2

The data that follows the header lines are the measurement data for that station for the last 5 days (provided data exists). Please notice that each reported hour has a date/time line followed by the number of data lines specified by the "bands" value on the date/time line. Data description

Important: The format of these spectral data files are not position dependent due to the variable field width of the "energy" (C11) value.