A shore-based station that provides identity, time synchronization, and text messages, which report (message 4) every ten seconds and are identified by a 00MIDxxxxx MMSI. These stations can also transmit AIS ATON Reports (message 21) and Application Specific Messages (ASM, message 6 and message 8) for meteorological or hydrological information, marine safety information, etc. (see the IALA Application Specific Message Collection). The Coast Guard Light List maintains a list of U.S. stations that also act as AIS ATONs or transmit ASMs. In the United States, these stations are solely operated by the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) in the Nationwide Automatic Identification System, a nationwide network that supports all USCG missions and is designed to enhance the Coast Guards maritime domain awareness of vessels operating in or approaching the nations waterways, ports, and infrastructure. This network, which comprises 130-plus base stations and 150-plus USACE inland stations, collects over 120 million AIS messages daily and shares information with other government agencies, industry, academia, and coastal planners.

High frequency radar can measure the speed and direction of ocean surface currents in near real time. These radars can measure currents over a large region of the coastal ocean, from a few kilometers offshore up to 200 km and can operate under any weather conditions. They are located near the shoreline, and need not be situated atop a high point of land.

Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) are a navigation safety device that transmits and monitors the location and characteristics of many vessels in U.S. and international waters in real-time. In the U.S. the Coast Guard and industry collect AIS data, which can also be used for a variety of coastal planning purposes. NOAA and BOEM have worked jointly to re-task and make available some of the most important records from the U.S. Coast Guards national network of AIS receivers. Information such as location, time, ship type, length, width, and draft have been extracted from the raw data and prepared as track lines for analyses in desktop GIS software.

This layer shows coastal channels and waterways that are maintained and surveyed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. These channels are necessary transportation systems that serve economic and national security interests. The possibility of silting is always present. Local authorities should be consulted for the controlling depth. NOAA Charts frequently show controlling depths in a table, which is kept current by the U.S. Coast Guard Local Notice to Mariners.

These data show the location of ocean observing assets within U.S. waters, and the physical parameters generally collected at each platform or gauge.

A vessel track shows the location and characteristics of commercial and recreational boats as a sequence of positions transmitted by an Automatic Identification System (AIS). AIS signals are susceptible to interference and this can result in a gap within a vessel track. The distribution, type, and frequency of vessel tracks are a useful aid to understanding the risk of conflicting uses within a certain geographic area. The vessel track positions in this data set are collected and recorded from land-based antennas as part of a national network operated by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) are a navigation safety device that transmits and monitors the location and characteristics of many vessels in U.S. and international waters in real-time. In the U.S. the Coast Guard and industry collect AIS data, which can also be used for a variety of coastal planning purposes. NOAA and BOEM have worked jointly to re-task and make available some of the most important records from the U.S. Coast Guard's national network of AIS receivers. Information such as location, time, ship type, length, width, and draft have been extracted from the raw data and prepared as track lines for analyses in desktop GIS software.

These data represent the boundaries of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) eleven regional associations (RAs). There are thousands of ocean observing tools in use every day-satellites in orbit, gliders, buoys, high-frequency radar, sharks with satellite tags, sensors on the ocean floor, and more operated by different organizations and researchers. IOOS, a national-regional partnership, gathers and integrates many of those data streams and makes those observations compatible and accessible by science, industry, government, and citizens. RAs design regional coastal observing systems to meet the unique needs of the regional environment and stakeholders. The eleven IOOS RAs maintain and operate regional coastal observing systems and develop information products for their users. The RAs provide increased observations, distinctive knowledge, and critical technological abilities, and apply these towards the development of products to meet regional and local needs

OCM plans to contract for AIS data per the following description. The United States Automatic Identification System Database contains vessel traffic data for planning purposes within the U.S. coastal waters. The database is composed of 216 self-contained File Geodatabases (FGDB). Each FGDB represents one month of data for a single UTM zone. The UTM zones represented cover the entire United States and include 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20. Each FGDB consists of one feature class, four tables, and two relationship classes. The Broadcast point feature class contains the position reports, which have been pre-filtered to a one-minute time step. The Voyage table contains elements of the static data reports that are updated for each ship voyage. The Vessel table contains elements of the static data reports that are specific to a particular vessel. The BaseStations table lists the base stations collecting data for a particular month/UTM zone. The AttributeUnits table contains a list of units for each of the attribute fields in the Broadcast, Voyage, and Vessel tables. The BroadcastHasVessel relationship class relates the broadcast points to the vessel table records. The BroadcastHasVoyage relationship class relates the broadcast points to the voyage table records. The Broadcast feature class and the Voyage, Vessel, and BaseStation tables each contain the UTM zone, year, and month in the file name.

CO-OPS has been involved with tsunami warning and mitigation since the Coast and Geodetic Survey started the Tsunami Warning System in 1948 to provide warnings to the Hawaiian Islands. After the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, CO-OPS was tasked to coordinate with the NOAA Tsunami Warning Centers in upgrading existing stations with new Data Collection Platform (DCP) and communications technology and with expanding the tsunami warning capabilities of the National Water Level Observation Network (NWLON). Work began in 2005 to upgrade 33 existing water level stations and install 16 new stations from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea by October 2006. As of September 2006, all 33 upgrades are complete, as well as 15 of the 16 new installations. As of October 2006, the NWLON consist of 196 long-term water level stations along all U.S. coasts, including the Great Lakes, Alaska, Hawaii, the Pacific Ocean Island Territories, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (formerly National Geophysical Data Center) serves as the archive center for these data and provides the historical data to users.