dataset · USA

NOAA's Coastal Ocean Reanalysis (CORA) Dataset: 1979-2022

NOAA's [Coastal Ocean Reanalysis (CORA)](https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/cora.html) for the Gulf, East Coast/Atlantic, and Caribbean (GEC) is produced using verified hourly water levels from the National Ocean Service’s [Center of Operational Oceanographic Products & Services](https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/) (CO-OPS). [ADvanced CIRCulation Model (ADCIRC)](https://www.erdc.usace.army.mil/Media/Fact-Sheets/Fact-Sheet-Article-View/Article/476698/advanced-circulation-model/) and [Simulating WA

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Source details

Licence: NOAA data disseminated through NODD are open to the public and can be used as desired. NOAA makes data openly available to ensure maximum use of our data, and to spur and encourage exploration and in

Evidence quality: 41.9

Listed in aws-odr public catalogue API on 2026-10-16; relevance/value screened (haiku).

Metadata checked: 2026-10-14T13:20:00.000Z

What's in it

Data offered docs-verified: water level elevation (hourly, verified) · maximum water elevation · atmospheric pressure at sea level · 10 m wind velocity · spectral significant wave height · maximum spectral significant wave height · spectral mean wave direction · spectral mean wave period · spectral peak wave period · hourly water levels interpolated to 500 m grid
Coverage docs-verified: Gulf of Mexico, US East Coast/Atlantic and Caribbean (lat 5.8 to 45.8; long -98.0 to -53.8) · 1979 to 2022
Resolution docs-verified: Centroids 300-400 m; gridded 500 m (EPSG:5070 Albers); derived products hourly
Update frequency docs-verified: Product dependent; at minimum annually
Formats docs-verified: NetCDF (.nc)
Access docs-verified: Free and open, no AWS account required (AWS S3 bucket noaa-nos-cora-pds, us-east-1, via --no-sign-request). Licence: NOAA open data via NODD; attribution requested, no endorsement implied

Useful for

Use cases llm-inferred: Historical water level extremes at tidal outfalls and coastal boundaries for flood risk assessment · Wave height and period climatology as inputs for coastal or shoreline defence design · Tidal and storm-surge boundary conditions for coastal drainage or estuary models
Audience llm-inferred: coastal engineers · flood risk consultants · hydrologists · GIS analysts

Limitations

Constraints llm-inferred: Domain is US Gulf, Atlantic and Caribbean only; no UK coverage · Very large archive (approx. 44.6 TB) requires cloud compute or subsetting · S3 directory restructuring was scheduled for May to September 2026, so hard-coded paths and CORA_V1.1_intake.yml references may be out of date; current state not verified · Reanalysis product, not real-time; update frequency is product-dependent · NetCDF only; no API or MCP tool layer

Evidence

Check upstream coverage, uncertainty and licence before use. Station observations are not forecasts or design levels.