Data

Data Products

NOTE TO USERS:
FTP access on iabp was terminated on Oct. 1, 2018. Data will remain accessible via the url links provided below. If you need solutions for programatically downloading data, don't hesitate contact Wendy Ermold.

Here are some tips for downloading url data programmatically: Download Tips

Real-Time and Historic LEVEL 1 Data

Buoy data files are updated daily and made available individually via the link below. Values provided are confined to surface temperature, atmospheric temperature, and barometric pressure when these values are available. All buoy files contain at least a date and position. Buoys that are no longer reporting remain available on this page:

Daily Updated LEVEL 1 Arctic Data
Daily Updated LEVEL 1 Antarctic Data

Note that ALL raw buoy data is located here:
https://iabp.apl.uw.edu/WebData/

Meta data for these data are available via a series of ascii tables located here:
https://iabp.apl.uw.edu/TABLES

Tables are divided by year of buoy deployment, and by Arctic vs. Antarctic. Here are the ascii tables for currently updating data:
ArcticTable_Current.txt
AntarcticTable_Current.txt

  • Raw, csv formatted Full Resolution Data (typically hourly) are available for buoys deployed since 2008 for buoys that are no longer reporting. The files are organized in folders based on the year of deployment.
    https://iabp.apl.uw.edu/Data_Products/BUOY_DATA/FULL_RESOLUTION_DATA/
  • 3 hourly resolution data is available from 1979 to 2016:
    https://iabp.apl.uw.edu/Data_Products/BUOY_DATA/3HOURLY_DATA/

  • Daily Full Resolution Data is available from 2009 to present. Each file contains data from all buoys on a given date. Data includes: BuoyID, year, hour, minute, Day of Year, Position Day of year, latitude, longitude, Barometric Pressure, Surface Temp, and Atmospheric Temp.
    https://iabp.apl.uw.edu/Data_Products/Daily_Full_Res_Data/

    LEVEL 2 Data

    Once a buoy has stopped reporting for at least six months, light processing is performed on the data. This processing consists primarily of removing data prior to deployment, and eliminating obvious spikes. For some early buoys a correction for temperature "wrap-around" was also necessary. "Wrap-around" is when a buoy's temperature drops below the buoy's lower limit and then "wraps" to its upper limit. For example, say -5C is a buoys lower limit, and 60C is its upper limit. Then a temperature of -6C will be reported as 59C, and a temperature of -7C will report as 58C. The accuracy of the data has not been determined.

    https://iabp.apl.uw.edu/WebData/LEVEL2/