Guide
Marine station freshness explained
Learn how live, current, recent, stale, partial, offline, and missing station states map to operational marine data freshness.
Why freshness matters
Marine observations age quickly. A wave or wind reading that was useful an hour ago can be misleading during a front, squall line, tide change, or rapidly building sea state.
Freshness states
- Live or current
- The station has a recent observation and the primary fields are usable.
- Recent
- The station still has useful context, but the observation is aging.
- Partial
- The station has a reachable observation with one or more missing field groups.
- Stale
- The station metadata is present, but the observation is no longer fresh.
- Offline or missing
- BuoyStat.us has no usable current observation for the station.
How to use the labels
Start with live or current stations for immediate situational awareness, compare nearby stations for consistency, then open the official NDBC station page before using the data for any safety-critical decision.