National Data Buoy Center Celebrates 40th Anniversary with a New Building

Angela Strong
National Data Buoy Center (NDBC)
National Weather Service (NWS)

On December 19, 2007, NOAA’s National Data Buoy Center celebrated its 40th Anniversary. The National Data Buoy Center, an element of the National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) operates a world-wide operational facility at the John C. Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, Mississippi. The anniversary celebration was marked by the dedication of a newly renovated and expanded industrial building that will enhance NDBC’s support of NOAA’s world-wide environmental monitoring program. A ribbon cutting ceremony was held at Building 3202, Stennis Space Center, MS. NOAA ribbon cutting participants included NDBC’s Director, Dr. Paul Moersdorf ; John McNulty, Director of the NWS Office of Operational Systems; and Ms. Zdenka Willis, Director of NOAA’s Integrated Ocean Observing System Program Office. Other participants included Robert Cabana who is Director of the NASA Stennis Space Center, and Mr. Frank Culbertson, Vice President of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC).

The growth of NDBC and ocean observations, as evidenced by this new building, is a tribute to 40 years of effort by many NDBC government and contractor personnel,” Dr. Moersdorf said about the anniversary ceremony. He added, “NDBC has been and will continue to be a ‘Marine Center of Excellence’ for the Nation.”

During the 1960's, approximately 50 ocean-oriented agencies conducted individual observation programs. In March 1966, the Ocean Engineering Panel of the Interagency Committee on Oceanography recommended the United States Coast Guard (USCG) investigate the feasibility of a consolidated national data buoy system. As a result of the investigation, the National Council for Marine Research Resources and Engineering Development endorsed the formation of the National Data Buoy Development Program (NDBDP) in 1967. The NDBDP (now NDBC) was created by USCG Commandant Instruction on December 19, 1967. In 1970, NOAA was formed and the NOAA Data Buoy Office (NDBO) was created within the National Ocean Service (NOS) and located in Mississippi. In 1982, the NDBO was renamed NDBC and was placed under NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS) with a mission to “Protect Lives and Property.”

Since that beginning, NDBC has continuously grown to where today it operates and maintains NOAA’s premiere real-time ocean observing systems. There are 161 coastal weather buoys and automated stations supporting rip current and search and rescue forecasts, small craft advisories, high wind and high sea warnings. In the equatorial Pacific NDBC operates 55 climate buoys to measure the heat content of the upper ocean as a predictor of upcoming El Niño and La Niña conditions. NDBC operates a worldwide network of 38 tsunami detection systems which provide the first indication of risk to coastal communities from possible tsunamis. In addition NDBC is now the recognized leader in quality control and processing of real time atmospheric and oceanographic observations; over 7,000,000 per year from many national and international sources.

Throughout the years, the National Data Buoy Center has developed into a globally recognized Center of Excellence in Marine Technology. More information on NDBC, as well access to all its data, can be found at: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov