The CoastWatch program acquires, processes satellite data, and distributes GIS compatible products in near real-time. A major challenge for data distribution is that data processing takes place at several geographically, trusted-network, and organizationally separated locations, often with no centralized administration of the processing machines. Data are available from NOAA, non NOAA, commercial, and foreign sources, such as the Japanese ADEOS-II platform. Once processed, these data and associated products are available through the CoastWatch home page, http://coastwatch.noaa.gov. CoastWatch has developed a flexible, easy to implement, architecture-independent system to coordinate the distribution of the data streams. This centralized distribution also provides dynamically generated FGDC compliant metadata records in a variety of output formats. In the near term, basic internet GIS browsing capabilities, via the University of Minnesota Mapserver project, will allow browsing of near-real-time data, with the ability to perform online queries. CoastWatch has a strong commitment to open source tools and providing data in accessible easy-to-use formats.