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The NOAA/NWS National Data Buoy Center’s (NDBC) mission is to ensure the nation’s maritime safety. To obtain meteorological observations along the vast, and critical. U.S. coastal areas, the NDBC developed, built and deployed sixty Coastal-Marine Automated Network (C-MAN) stations in the early 1980s Today, 40 stations located in extremely remote locations such as Alaska, lighthouses, and the Great Lakes obtain crucial hourly observations including barometric pressure, wind direction, wind speed, wind gust, air temperature, and relative humidity, with the capability to provide other ad hoc measurements as needed.
After forty years, NDBC is recapitalizing the C-MAN network to ensure NWS’s critical observing stations are properly maintained and improved for the protection of life and property. This effort includes a new payload, sensors, electrical system, mounting, and sighting, all using modern hardware and techniques. A team with members from a wide array of disciplines, experience, and education are working on these tasks and ensuring that the data is processed correctly.
In April, 2025, NDBC sent its best talent to CLKN7 - Cape Lookout, NC to tear down the defunct tower and stand up our very first refreshed system. Check out the picture of our technicians and engineers at CLKN7 and the social media post of the U.S. Coast Guard helicopter assist. NDBC now has two additional refreshed systems located at SMKF1 - Sombrero Key, FL and STDM4 - Stannard Rock, MI.
NDBC intends to refresh the entire C-MAN network over the next few years. https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/
