Output fields from the NOAA WAVEWATCH III® wave model monthly hindcasts

Description

The NOAA WAVEWATCH III® hindcast dataset comprises output fields from the monthly WAVEWATCH III® hindcast model runs conducted at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction. Each model run produces a collection of files containing gridded fields comprised of input and mean wave parameters such as the significant wave height, directions, frequencies etc. Once per month, a wave simulation is carried out using restart files from the previous month and forced by hindcast wind products for the entire month. The resulting output data are transferred to NCEI on a monthly basis. NCEI assembles the series of files into monthly accessions to facilitate archival retention and public access. The fields are encoded in the standard GRIdded Binary version 2 (GRIB2) file format. Wave spectral data summaries are included, as well as detailed spectra at selected locations, in tabular text format. Nine different sets of output fields, corresponding to nine different grids used in the numerical simulations, are included. These include a global grid, as well as regional and coastal grids covering much of the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans.

Resources

Name Format Description Link
0 Navigate directly to the URL for data access and direct download. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/oceans/ncep/nww3/
0 Information for contacts at NCEI. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/contact
0 Institution web page http://www.ncep.noaa.gov
0 Institution web page http://www.ncep.noaa.gov
0 MMAB Operational Wave Models http://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/waves/wavewatch/
0 Institution web page http://www.ncep.noaa.gov
0 Institution web page http://www.ncep.noaa.gov
0 These data are available through the File Transfer Protocol (FTP). FTP is no longer supported by most internet browsers. You may copy and paste the FTP link to the data into an FTP client (e.g., FileZilla or WinSCP). ftp://ftp-oceans.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data.nodc/ncep/nww3/
0 Institution web page http://www.ncep.noaa.gov
0 Global Change Master Directory (GCMD). 2023. GCMD Keywords, Version 17. Greenbelt, MD: Earth Science Data and Information System, Earth Science Projects Division, Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). URL (GCMD Keyword Forum Page): https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD+Keywords https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD%2BKeywords
0 Global Change Master Directory (GCMD). 2023. GCMD Keywords, Version 17. Greenbelt, MD: Earth Science Data and Information System, Earth Science Projects Division, Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). URL (GCMD Keyword Forum Page): https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD+Keywords https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD%2BKeywords
0 Navigate directly to the URL for a descriptive web page with download links. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/archive/accession/NCEP-WAVEWATCH
0 Global Change Master Directory (GCMD). 2023. GCMD Keywords, Version 17. Greenbelt, MD: Earth Science Data and Information System, Earth Science Projects Division, Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). URL (GCMD Keyword Forum Page): https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD+Keywords https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD%2BKeywords
0 Search for data granules belonging to this collection (a granule is the smallest aggregation of data that can be independently described and retrieved). https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/metadata/granule/geoportal/?from=0&size=10&esdsl=%7B%22query%22%3A%7B%22bool%22%3A%7B%22must%22%3A%5B%7B%22query_string%22%3A%7B%22analyze_wildcard%22%3Atrue%2C%22query%22%3A%22fileid%3ANCEP-WAVEWATCH.*%22%7D%7D%5D%7D%7D%7D#searchPanel
0 Information for contacts at NCEI. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/contact
21 These data are available through a variety of services via a THREDDS (Thematic Real-time Environmental Distributed Data Services) Data Server (TDS). Depending on the dataset, the TDS can provide WMS, WCS, DAP, HTTP, and other data access and metadata services as well. For more information on the TDS, see http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/thredds/current/tds/. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/thredds-ocean/catalog/ncep/nww3/catalog.html
0 For the use of NOAA employees and their customers to facilitate in the transfer of meteorological data in WMO GRIB2 format. https://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/docs/grib2/grib2_doc/
0 Navigate directly to the URL for a descriptive web page with download links. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/archive/accession/NCEP-WAVEWATCH
0 Search for data granules belonging to this collection (a granule is the smallest aggregation of data that can be independently described and retrieved). https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/metadata/granule/geoportal/?from=0&size=10&esdsl=%7B%22query%22%3A%7B%22bool%22%3A%7B%22must%22%3A%5B%7B%22query_string%22%3A%7B%22analyze_wildcard%22%3Atrue%2C%22query%22%3A%22fileid%3ANCEP-WAVEWATCH.*%22%7D%7D%5D%7D%7D%7D#searchPanel
21 These data are available through a variety of services via a THREDDS (Thematic Real-time Environmental Distributed Data Services) Data Server (TDS). Depending on the dataset, the TDS can provide WMS, WCS, DAP, HTTP, and other data access and metadata services as well. For more information on the TDS, see http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/thredds/current/tds/. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/thredds-ocean/catalog/ncep/nww3/catalog.html
0 Navigate directly to the URL for data access and direct download. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/oceans/ncep/nww3/
0 These data are available through the File Transfer Protocol (FTP). FTP is no longer supported by most internet browsers. You may copy and paste the FTP link to the data into an FTP client (e.g., FileZilla or WinSCP). ftp://ftp-oceans.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data.nodc/ncep/nww3/
0 Information for contacts at NCEI. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/contact
0 Institution web page https://www.weather.gov/ncep/
0 Institution web page https://www.weather.gov/ncep/
0 Institution web page https://www.weather.gov/ncep/
0 Information for contacts at NCEI. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/contact
0 Global Change Master Directory (GCMD). 2025. GCMD Keywords, Version 21. Greenbelt, MD: Earth Science Data and Information System, Earth Science Projects Division, Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). URL (GCMD Keyword Forum Page): https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD+Keywords https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD%2BKeywords
0 Global Change Master Directory (GCMD). 2025. GCMD Keywords, Version 21. Greenbelt, MD: Earth Science Data and Information System, Earth Science Projects Division, Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). URL (GCMD Keyword Forum Page): https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD+Keywords https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD%2BKeywords
0 Global Change Master Directory (GCMD). 2025. GCMD Keywords, Version 21. Greenbelt, MD: Earth Science Data and Information System, Earth Science Projects Division, Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). URL (GCMD Keyword Forum Page): https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD+Keywords https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD%2BKeywords
0 MMAB Operational Wave Models http://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/waves/wavewatch/
0 Institution web page https://www.weather.gov/ncep/
0 For the use of NOAA employees and their customers to facilitate in the transfer of meteorological data in WMO GRIB2 format. https://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/docs/grib2/grib2_doc/
0 Institution web page https://www.weather.gov/ncep/
0 Navigate directly to the URL for a descriptive web page with download links. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/archive/accession/NCEP-WAVEWATCH
0 Search for data granules belonging to this collection (a granule is the smallest aggregation of data that can be independently described and retrieved). https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/metadata/granule/geoportal/?from=0&size=10&esdsl=%7B%22query%22%3A%7B%22bool%22%3A%7B%22must%22%3A%5B%7B%22query_string%22%3A%7B%22analyze_wildcard%22%3Atrue%2C%22query%22%3A%22fileid%3ANCEP-WAVEWATCH.*%22%7D%7D%5D%7D%7D%7D#searchPanel
0 Navigate directly to the URL for data access and direct download. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/oceans/ncep/nww3/
0 These data are available through the File Transfer Protocol (FTP). FTP is no longer supported by most internet browsers. You may copy and paste the FTP link to the data into an FTP client (e.g., FileZilla or WinSCP). ftp://ftp-oceans.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data.nodc/ncep/nww3/
0 Information for contacts at NCEI. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/contact
0 Institution web page https://www.weather.gov/ncep/
0 Institution web page https://www.weather.gov/ncep/
0 Institution web page https://www.weather.gov/ncep/
0 Information for contacts at NCEI. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/contact
0 Global Change Master Directory (GCMD). 2025. GCMD Keywords, Version 21. Greenbelt, MD: Earth Science Data and Information System, Earth Science Projects Division, Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). URL (GCMD Keyword Forum Page): https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD+Keywords https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD%2BKeywords
0 Global Change Master Directory (GCMD). 2025. GCMD Keywords, Version 21. Greenbelt, MD: Earth Science Data and Information System, Earth Science Projects Division, Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). URL (GCMD Keyword Forum Page): https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD+Keywords https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD%2BKeywords
0 Global Change Master Directory (GCMD). 2025. GCMD Keywords, Version 21. Greenbelt, MD: Earth Science Data and Information System, Earth Science Projects Division, Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). URL (GCMD Keyword Forum Page): https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD+Keywords https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD%2BKeywords
0 MMAB Operational Wave Models http://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/waves/wavewatch/
0 Institution web page https://www.weather.gov/ncep/
0 For the use of NOAA employees and their customers to facilitate in the transfer of meteorological data in WMO GRIB2 format. https://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/docs/grib2/grib2_doc/
0 Institution web page https://www.weather.gov/ncep/
21 These data are available through a variety of services via a THREDDS (Thematic Real-time Environmental Distributed Data Services) Data Server (TDS). Depending on the dataset, the TDS can provide WMS, WCS, DAP, HTTP, and other data access and metadata services as well. For more information on the TDS, see http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/thredds/current/tds/. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/thredds-ocean/catalog/ncep/nww3/catalog.html
0 Navigate directly to the URL for a descriptive web page with download links. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/archive/accession/NCEP-WAVEWATCH
0 Search for data granules belonging to this collection (a granule is the smallest aggregation of data that can be independently described and retrieved). https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/metadata/granule/geoportal/?from=0&size=10&esdsl=%7B%22query%22%3A%7B%22bool%22%3A%7B%22must%22%3A%5B%7B%22query_string%22%3A%7B%22analyze_wildcard%22%3Atrue%2C%22query%22%3A%22fileid%3ANCEP-WAVEWATCH.*%22%7D%7D%5D%7D%7D%7D#searchPanel
21 These data are available through a variety of services via a THREDDS (Thematic Real-time Environmental Distributed Data Services) Data Server (TDS). Depending on the dataset, the TDS can provide WMS, WCS, DAP, HTTP, and other data access and metadata services as well. For more information on the TDS, see http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/thredds/current/tds/. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/thredds-ocean/catalog/ncep/nww3/catalog.html
0 Navigate directly to the URL for data access and direct download. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/oceans/ncep/nww3/
0 These data are available through the File Transfer Protocol (FTP). FTP is no longer supported by most internet browsers. You may copy and paste the FTP link to the data into an FTP client (e.g., FileZilla or WinSCP). ftp://ftp-oceans.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data.nodc/ncep/nww3/
0 Information for contacts at NCEI. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/contact
0 Institution web page https://www.weather.gov/ncep/
0 Institution web page https://www.weather.gov/ncep/
0 Institution web page https://www.weather.gov/ncep/
0 Information for contacts at NCEI. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/contact
0 Global Change Master Directory (GCMD). 2025. GCMD Keywords, Version 21. Greenbelt, MD: Earth Science Data and Information System, Earth Science Projects Division, Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). URL (GCMD Keyword Forum Page): https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD+Keywords https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD%2BKeywords
0 Global Change Master Directory (GCMD). 2025. GCMD Keywords, Version 21. Greenbelt, MD: Earth Science Data and Information System, Earth Science Projects Division, Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). URL (GCMD Keyword Forum Page): https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD+Keywords https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD%2BKeywords
0 Global Change Master Directory (GCMD). 2025. GCMD Keywords, Version 21. Greenbelt, MD: Earth Science Data and Information System, Earth Science Projects Division, Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). URL (GCMD Keyword Forum Page): https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD+Keywords https://forum.earthdata.nasa.gov/app.php/tag/GCMD%2BKeywords
0 MMAB Operational Wave Models http://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/waves/wavewatch/
0 Institution web page https://www.weather.gov/ncep/
0 For the use of NOAA employees and their customers to facilitate in the transfer of meteorological data in WMO GRIB2 format. https://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/docs/grib2/grib2_doc/
0 Institution web page https://www.weather.gov/ncep/

Tags

  • 10-m u wind
  • wave spectra
  • ocean model
  • global ocean
  • oceanography
  • waves
  • peak wave direction
  • 10-m v wind
  • peak wave period
  • ocean
  • model
  • significant wave height of combined wind and swell seas
  • wave height
  • wave period

Topics

Categories