Who We Are

The Backyard Buoys™ project enables Indigenous and coastal communities to gather and use wave data, enhancing their blue economy and hazard protection. Leveraging low-cost and scalable marine technology, Backyard Buoys offers a system for community-managed ocean buoys and web apps that simplify data access to complement Indigenous Knowledge.

Data Processing:

Backyard Buoys data is collected using Sofar Spotter buoys. The data is quality controlled using IOOS QARTOD tests. Data posted via the Backyard Buoys ERDDAP server is presented with metadata following the IOOS Metadata Profile 1.2 Standard.

Data Citation:

When using Backyard Buoys data, please cite the data as listed in the metadata for each dataset.

Example citation format: Institution. Year. dataset_id. Backyard Buoys. dataset_url

Example citation: Quileute Indian Tribe. 2024. backyardbuoys_quileute_south. Backyard Buoys. https://backyardbuoys.org/erddap/backyardbuoys_quileute_south

Start Using ERDDAP:
Search for Interesting Datasets

Do a Full Text Search for Datasets
View a List of All 26 Datasets
Search for Datasets by Category
Datasets can be categorized in different ways by the values of various metadata attributes. Click on an attribute (cdm_data_type, institution, ioos_category, keywords, long_name, standard_name, variableName) to see a list of categories (values) for that attribute. Then, you can click on a category to see a list of relevant datasets.
Search for Datasets with Advanced Search

Search for Datasets by Protocol

Protocols are the standards which specify how to request data. Different protocols are appropriate for different types of data and for different client applications.

Protocol	Description
griddap datasets	Griddap lets you use the OPeNDAP hyperslab protocol to request data subsets, graphs, and maps from gridded datasets (for example, satellite data and climate model data). griddap documentation
tabledap datasets	Tabledap lets you use the OPeNDAP constraint/selection protocol to request data subsets, graphs, and maps from tabular datasets (for example, buoy data). tabledap documentation
"files" datasets	ERDDAP's "files" system lets you browse a virtual file system and download source data files. WARNING! The dataset's metadata and variable names in these source files may be different than elsewhere in ERDDAP! You might prefer using the dataset's Data Access Form instead. "files" documentation
WMS datasets	The Web Map Service (WMS) lets you request an image with data plotted on a map. WMS documentation

Developers of computer programs and JavaScripted web pages can search for datasets via
Search Multiple ERDDAPs
There are two unofficial ways to search multiple ERDDAPs for datasets: Search Multiple ERDDAPs and ERDDAP Dataset Discovery.

Converters
In addition to serving data, ERDDAP has some handy converters:

Acronyms	Convert a Common Oceanic/Atmospheric Acronym to/from a Full Name
FIPS County Codes	Convert a FIPS County Code to/from a County Name
Interpolate	Interpolate Values From Gridded Dataset Values
Keywords	Convert a CF Standard Name to/from a GCMD Science Keyword
Time	Convert a String Time to/from a Numeric Time
Units	Convert UDUNITS to/from Unified Code for Units of Measure (UCUM)
URLs	Convert Out-of-Date URLs into Up-to-Date URLs
Variable Names	Convert a Common Oceanic/Atmospheric Variable Name to/from a Full Name

Metadata
ERDDAP has an
FGDC Web Accessible Folder (WAF) with FGDC‑STD‑001‑1998 (external link) metadata files and an
ISO 19115 Web Accessible Folder (WAF) with ISO 19115‑2/19139 metadata files for all of the geospatial datasets in this ERDDAP.

RESTful Web Services
You can bypass ERDDAP's web pages and use ERDDAP's RESTful web services (for example, for searching for datasets, for downloading data, for making maps) directly from any computer program (for example, Matlab, R, or a program that you write) and even from web pages (via HTML image tags or JavaScript). RESTful Web Services documentation

Other Features

Status	The Status web page is a quick way to check the current status/health of this ERDDAP, including a list of datasets which failed to load.
Out-Of-Date Datasets	The Out-Of-Date Datasets web page displays a list of near-real-time datasets, ranked by how out-of-date they are.
Subscriptions	ERDDAP has an email/URL subscription system so that you can be notified immediately whenever a dataset changes (for example, whenever new data is added to a near-real-time dataset).
Slide Sorter	Anyone can use ERDDAP's Slide Sorter to build a personal web page that displays graphs with the latest data (or other images or HTML content), each in its own, draggable slide.
Data Provider Form	The Data Provider Form is for people who have data and want it to be served by this ERDDAP. It collects basic information about the dataset and emails it to this ERDDAP's administrator.

Who We Are

Data Processing:

Data Citation:

Start Using ERDDAP: Search for Interesting Datasets

Do a Full Text Search for Datasets

View a List of All 26 Datasets

Search for Datasets by Category

Search for Datasets with Advanced Search

Search for Datasets by Protocol

Developers of computer programs and JavaScripted web pages can search for datasets via

Search Multiple ERDDAPs

Start Using ERDDAP:
Search for Interesting Datasets