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Sea surface temperature near the Florida Keys

Discover and download recent satellite SST products and in-situ buoy temperatures for a coastal region.

What this teaches

  • How to scope a free-text query with bbox for a coastal region
  • Why exclude_collections matters for free-text searches
  • How to combine satellite-derived (CoastWatch) and in-situ (NDBC) sources
  • How to follow up with get_item to retrieve actual file URLs

Sources used: COASTWATCH, COASTWATCH_CWCGOM, NDBC

Prompt

Find me sea surface temperature data near the Florida Keys for the last
two weeks, both from satellite and from NOAA buoys. Give me the actual
download URLs for the top three results.

Transcript

The agent's tool calls, in order:

1. First search — discovers noise

search_datasets(
  q = "sea surface temperature",
  bbox = "-83,24,-80,25.5",
  datetime = "2026-04-21T00:00:00Z/2026-05-05T00:00:00Z",
  limit = 5
)

Returned 8,396 matches but the top results are oil-spill incident reports (INCIDENT_NEWS) and a regulatory boundary layer (MARINECADASTRE_AIS). The free-text query is matching descriptions that mention "sea" and "temperature" in unrelated contexts.

2. Refined search — scope to SST sources

search_datasets(
  q = "sea surface temperature",
  bbox = "-83,24,-80,25.5",
  datetime = "2026-04-21T00:00:00Z/2026-05-05T23:59:59Z",
  collections = "COASTWATCH,COASTWATCH_CWCGOM,NDBC",
  limit = 10
)

32 matches. Real top hits (the noise is gone):

ID Collection Title Most-recent datetime
noaacwLEOACSPOSSTL3SnrtPMNight COASTWATCH NOAA ACSPO Daily Global 0.02° Gridded SST + thermal fronts (PM Night) 2026-04-19
noaacwLEOACSPOSSTL3SnrtPMDay COASTWATCH NOAA ACSPO Daily Global 0.02° Gridded SST + thermal fronts (PM Day) 2026-04-18
noaacwOHC14na COASTWATCH Ocean Heat Content (North Atlantic) — includes SST, SSHA, isotherm depths 2024-01-15
noaacwOHC14np COASTWATCH Ocean Heat Content (North Pacific) — same product, different basin 2024-01-15
noaacweddymesidaily COASTWATCH Multiparameter Eddy Significance Index (uses SST as input) 2020-05-05

The two ACSPO products are the real SST grids — 0.02° resolution, near-real-time, separate Day/Night composites with thermal-front detection.

3. NDBC buoys near the Florida Keys

search_datasets(
  collections = "NDBC",
  bbox = "-83,24,-80,25.5",
  limit = 5
)

50 matches. Real responses include:

Buoy ID Location Owner Water temp range
ndbc_jbyf1 Joe Bay, FL (25.22°N, 80.54°W) Everglades NP 10.8 – 26.7 °C
ndbc_thrf1 Thursday Point, FL (25.20°N, 80.37°W) Everglades NP 11.4 – 26.6 °C
ndbc_bbsf1 BBCW10, Biscayne Bay (25.47°N, 80.35°W) Everglades NP (full water-quality suite)
ndbc_42095 Satan Shoal, FL (24.41°N, 81.97°W) USACE 21.4 – 25.8 °C
ndbc_42079 Bahia Honda Key, FL (24.54°N, 81.24°W) USACE (moored buoy with met + waves)

4. Get download URLs for top three

get_item(collection = "COASTWATCH", item_id = "noaacwLEOACSPOSSTL3SnrtPMDay")
get_item(collection = "NDBC", item_id = "ndbc_42095")
get_item(collection = "NDBC", item_id = "ndbc_jbyf1")

Each get_item returns the full assets block. NDBC items expose realtime CSV at https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/data/realtime2/<STATION>.txt and historical NetCDF on the NDBC THREDDS server. CoastWatch items expose ERDDAP griddap (NetCDF, GeoTIFF, KML, etc.) via https://coastwatch.noaa.gov/erddap/griddap/<DATASET>.html.

Result the agent gave

"For SST near the Florida Keys, last two weeks (datetime-filtered to April 21 – May 5 2026):

Satellite — noaacwLEOACSPOSSTL3SnrtPMDay and noaacwLEOACSPOSSTL3SnrtPMNight are the real-time SST products you want. NOAA NESDIS/OSPO produces these daily at 0.02° global resolution, separating PM Day and PM Night composites. The most recent items I see are dated April 18–19. Both deliver SST + thermal-front gradients via ERDDAP at https://coastwatch.noaa.gov/erddap.

In-situ — five NDBC buoys cover the Keys area: ndbc_jbyf1 (Joe Bay), ndbc_thrf1 (Thursday Point), and ndbc_bbsf1 (BBCW10) are Everglades NP water-quality stations with full chlorophyll/DO/pH/turbidity suites; ndbc_42095 (Satan Shoal) and ndbc_42079 (Bahia Honda Key) are USACE wave + met buoys. Realtime CSVs are at https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/data/realtime2/.txt — e.g., https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/data/realtime2/42095.txt for Satan Shoal.

Bonus — noaacwOHC14na is a great companion product if you want SST plus 20°C / 26°C isotherm depths and ocean heat content for the North Atlantic basin context."

Variations

  • Different region: change the bbox. For Gulf of Maine: -71,41,-65,45.
  • Different time window: datetime = "2024-09-01T00:00:00Z/2024-09-30T23:59:59Z" for September 2024.
  • Just the gridded product: collections = "COASTWATCH,COASTWATCH_CWCGOM".
  • Only buoys with active wave-height records: add filter on aquaview:column_stats_summary.variables.Wave Height.count > 0.