nowCOAST is a GIS-based web mapping portal providing integrated, one-stop access to real-time coastal environmental observations and NOAA forecasts for any region in the coastal United States.
NowCOAST provides users with displays of the latest surface weather and ocean observations, satellite cloud imagery, weather radar reflectivity mosaics, sea surface temperature analyses and gridded forecasts. It also supplies geo-referenced hyperlinks to thousands of web sites providing current observations from meteorological, oceanographic, river, and water quality observing networks and NOAA forecast products from the top of the watershed to the high seas. NowCOAST is designed to be a planning aid to assist recreational and commercial mariners, coastal managers, HAZMAT responders, coastal ocean modelers and marine educators to discover and display real-time information for their particular needs and geographic area of interest. Thus, nowCOAST supports the NOAA Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) Program’s vision “to provide continuous, integrated data on our open oceans, coastal waters, and Great Lakes…to support the information needs of government, environmental managers, scientists, business and the public.”