IOOS backbone expansion efforts by NOAA's National Data Buoy Center

The National Weather Service's (NWS) National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) operates moored buoys and coastal marine (CMAN) stations around the continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, and the Great Lakes. These stations, formerly referred to as the NWS Marine Observation Network (MON), now constitute one of the primary components of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) Federal Backbone.

Congressional appropriations in FY05 provided resources to expand the existing network by adding increased ocean parameter observation at existing stations. In response, NDBC asked IOOS Regional Associations (RA) for their priorities in augmenting stations for currents, salinity and directional waves. The RA responses also contained recommendations for the “densification” of the NDBC network by adding new stations as proposed in keystone IOOS planning documents. A compilation of the regional requirements, and NDBC's progress and plans for meeting them, are given.