Near-real-time surface ocean velocities obtained by HF-radar in coastal waters of eastern US/Gulf of America and western US during July 2006 (NCEI Accession 0302299)

This dataset contains near-real-time ocean surface velocities, also known as total vector velocities, derived from high-frequency (HF) radar stations. The velocities are arranged in a horizontal latitude/longitude grid. Measured velocities are indicative of the upper 0.3 - 2.5 meters of the ocean depending on the operating frequency of the HF-radar and the vertical velocity profile of the water column. Data files are in ASCII columnar format, containing latitude, longitude, surface eastward sea water velocity (U), and surface northward sea water velocity (V). The National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) – in collaboration with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography through June 2025 and thereafter with NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) – assembles the data from the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) Surface Currents Program’s HF-Radar National Network and submits the data on a monthly basis to NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

Scripps Institution of Oceanography has submitted these data to NCEI to supplement the data previously received from NDBC.

Remote sensing of ocean surface velocity from shore-based HF-radar sensors bridges the operational observational gap between point samples obtained from in-situ sampling and synoptic scale relatively low resolution data obtained from satellites by providing continuous mesoscale coverage at relatively high resolution near the coast.