Coastal Wave Program Spectral and Waverider Data (1979-1983)

National Ocean Service (NOS) Coastal Wave Program data from 1979 to 1983, organized by NOAA NCEI. The dataset contains analyzed wave information structured into three fixed-length ASCII record types describing environmental conditions, wave energy spectra, and waverider measurements. All records are 128 characters long and include unique file type and identifier columns.

Use Cases

• Analyze wave energy spectral values from record type B for coastal energy resource assessment.
• Study waverider data reported in record type C to understand wave height and period dynamics.
• Use basic environmental information from record type A to contextualize spectral and waverider measurements.
• Sort data by station and sequence number columns to reconstruct temporal sequences for specific monitoring locations.

Strengths

• Data spans a 5-year period from 1979 to 1983.
• Structured into three distinct, fixed-length 128-character record types for consistency.

Limitations

• Specific row counts, column details beyond the first nine, and geographic coverage are unknown.
• Data is temporally stale, with the last update recorded in June 1983.

Provenance

Source

National Ocean Service (NOS) Coastal Wave Program, organized by NOAA NCEI.

Collection Method

Analyzed wave data submitted and reassigned unique identifiers by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC).

Time Range

1979 to 1983.

Freshness

Historical dataset; last updated 1983-06-08.

Geography

Coastal regions covered by the NOS Coastal Wave Program; specific locations unknown.