Download and parse a full year of archived standard meteorological observations for a buoy from NDBC's historical data files

domain: www.ndbc.noaa.gov · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗

Steps

  1. Locate the target station's historical data files (organized by station and year) via the NDBC historical data search/download pages.
  2. Download the yearly text file for the station (current-year data is split into monthly files instead of one annual file).
  3. Parse the fixed-format columns per the NDBC measurement descriptions/web data guide, noting header rows define each column's meaning and units.
  4. Handle missing-data sentinel values, which differ from real-time files: historical files use a variable number of 9s (e.g. 999.0, 99.0) rather than the 'MM' used in real-time feeds.
  5. Cross-reference station metadata (instrument height, payload type) since sensor configurations can change over a station's lifetime, affecting comparability across years.

Known gotchas

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