Global Sea Surface Temperature Buoy Data for Search and Rescue, 2004-2016

Sea Surface Temperature data collected from buoys deployed worldwide in support of the U.S. Coast Guard Office of Search and Rescue (CG-SAR) program from March 24, 2004, to September 30, 2016. The data, provided by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), includes temperature in degrees Fahrenheit and geospatial coordinates. Buoys were deployed from aircraft, helicopters, and vessels for purposes including research, law enforcement, and environmental protection.

Use Cases

• Modeling ocean temperature trends based on buoy-reported SST data.
• Analyzing spatial distribution of sea surface conditions for search and rescue mission planning.
• Correlating environmental data with law enforcement or research activities based on deployment purposes.
• Training machine learning models for SST prediction using historical buoy measurements.

Strengths

• Data spans over 12 years, from March 2004 to September 2016.
• Includes geospatial coordinates, enabling location-based analysis.
• Sourced from NOAA NCEI, a recognized environmental data authority.

Limitations

• Last updated 2016-09-30 00:00:00; freshness should be verified.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

NOAA_NCEI

Collection Method

Data collected from buoys deployed from fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, vessels, and other platforms.

Time Range

2004-03-24 to 2016-09-30

Freshness

Historical data collection ended in 2016.

Geography

Worldwide (buoys deployed globally)