NOAA's Coastal Ocean Reanalysis (CORA) provides re-analyzed wave and water level data and derived products for the U.S. coastlines. The data are produced by coupling ADCIRC (ADvanced CIRCulation Model) and SWAN (Simulating WAves Nearshore) and assimilating verified hourly water levels from the National Ocean Service’s Center of Operational Oceanographic Products & Services (CO-OPS).
Data are available over multiple geographic domains:
GEC (CONUS East and Gulf Coasts, and Caribbean):
PAC (CONUS West Coast, S.E. Alaska, and Hawaii):
| Description | Datasets affected | Date | Data Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial GEC data release | GEC water levels and waves | 2022 | 0.9 |
| GEC water level datasets re-computed by filling gaps in historical observation record using machine learning | GEC water levels | 2023 | 1.0 |
| GEC water level datasets re-computed to correct long-term trends | GEC water levels | 2024 | 1.1 |
| GEC wave datasets re-computed to improve amplitude and phase during extreme events. Data were also re-chunked to improve cloud-based access speed. | GEC waves | Jun. 2026 | 1.1.1 |
| S3 bucket directories re-structured | No change to data, only to access paths | Jun. 2026 | 1.1.1 |
| Initial PAC data release | PAC water levels and waves | Oct. 2026 | 1.1.1 |
| Intake catalog files updated to include Pacific domain and remove version dependence | None | Oct. 2026 | 1.1.1 |
Supporting files updated to include metadata.txt and README.md |
None | Oct. 2026 | 1.1.1 |
v0.9 is now deprecated. GEC water levels utilized fewer observations for assimilation.
v1.0 is now deprecated. GEC water levels exhibited erroneous long-term trends.
v1.1 is now deprecated. GEC waves exhibited a low-bias and phase lag during extreme events.
.
├── cora_gec/ # CONUS East and Gulf Coasts, and Caribbean domain
│ ├── native_grid/ # ADCIRC-native irregular triangular grid
│ │ ├── water_levels/ # Water level data relative to MSL
│ │ │ ├── fort.63_[TIME].[nc|zarr] # Hourly water levels
│ │ │ └── maxele.63_[TIME].[nc|zarr] # Yearly maximum water levels
│ │ ├── waves/ # Bulk wave parameter data
│ │ │ ├── swan_DIR.63_[TIME]_[CHUNK].[nc|zarr] # Hourly mean wave direction
│ │ │ ├── swan_HS.63_[TIME]_[CHUNK].[nc|zarr] # Hourly significant wave height
│ │ │ └── swan_TPS.63_[TIME]_[CHUNK].[nc|zarr] # Hourly spectral peak wave period
│ │ └── fort.14 # Grid file describing mesh and bathymetry
│ │
│ ├── 500m_grid/ # Re-interpolated 500 m resolution regular grid
│ │ ├── derived_products/ # Data products derived from the data.
│ │ │ ├── daily_max/ # Daily max water levels (by YYYYMM)
│ │ │ ├── monthly_statistics/ # Monthly tidal stats (by YYYY)
│ │ │ └── peaks_over_threshold/ # Water level exceedances above multiple thresholds.
│ │ └── water_levels/ # Water level data relative to MSL
│ │ └── 500m_grid_zeta_YYYYMMDD.nc # Hourly water levels by date
│ │
│ └── native_grid_shoreline/ # Data along a shoreline extracted from the native_grid.
│ ├── derived_products/ # Data products derived from the data.
│ │ ├── htf_predictions/ # Daily liklihoods of high tide flooding from CO-OPS's Experimental High Resolution Monthly High Tide Flooding Outlook.
│ │ ├── beta.h5 # Sea level anomaly adjustment factor
│ │ └── tide_constits.h5 # UTide-derived tidal constituents
│ └── water_levels/ # Water level data relative to MSL
│ └── [STATE].nc # State-level hourly water levels
│ └── [STATE]_mm_[CHUNK].zarr # State-level hourly water levels in integer mm units.
│
├── cora_pac/ # CONUS West Coast, S.E. Alaska, and Hawaii domain
│ └── native_grid/ # ADCIRC-native irregular triangular grid
│ ├── water_levels/ # Water level data relative to MSL
│ │ ├── fort.63_[TIME]_[CHUNK].[nc|zarr] # Hourly water levels
│ │ └── maxele.63_[TIME].[nc|zarr] # Yearly maximum water levels
│ └── waves/ # Bulk wave parameter data
│ ├── swan_DIR.63_[TIME]_[CHUNK].[nc|zarr] # Hourly mean wave direction
│ ├── swan_HS.63_[TIME]_[CHUNK].[nc|zarr] # Hourly significant wave height
│ └── swan_TPS.63_[TIME]_[CHUNK].[nc|zarr] # Hourly spectral peak wave period
│
├── CORA_intake.yml # Inake catalog to be used with the intake Python package for accessing cloud-optimized datasets with zarr v2. See the GitHub repo for usage examples: https://github.com/NOAA-CO-OPS/CORA-Coastal-Ocean-Reanalysis-CORA
└── CORA_intake_zarr3.yml # Inake catalog to be used with the intake Python package for accessing cloud-optimized datasets with zarr v3 or higher. See the GitHub repo for usage examples: https://github.com/NOAA-CO-OPS/CORA-Coastal-Ocean-Reanalysis-CORA
*Note: [TIME] represents YYYY, YYYY-YYYY+3, or full spans. [CHUNK] represents _map or _timeseries.*
NOAA's Coastal Ocean Reanalysis (CORA) was accessed on DATE from https://registry.opendata.aws/noaa-nos-cora.
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