Waves crashing against a lighthouse during a sea storm.

Met Office marine data service

The Met Office’s UK Marine and Climate Advisory Service (UKMCAS) is now operational and currently offers free at point of use access to five data products, outlined below. These come in NetCDF format and are accessed via FTP/SFTP.

Northwest Shelf Ocean (AMM15 PHY)

Ocean physics analysis and 6-day forecast for the North-West European Atlantic shelf at 1.5km resolution on 33 depth levels. Full technical product details are available here. Provided under Open Government Licence (OGL) terms and conditions.

For Copernicus Marine Service users, please note this data product will be available for a limited time only via CMEMS under catalogue ID: NORTHWESTSHELF_ANALYSIS_FORECAST_PHY_004_013. From the end of 2023 onwards, UKMCAS will be the only service providing this data.   

Northwest Shelf Wave (AMM15 WAV)

Surface wave analysis and 6-day forecast for the North-West European Atlantic shelf at 1.5km resolution. Full technical product details are available here. Provided under Open Government Licence (OGL) terms and conditions.

For Copernicus Marine Service users, please note this data product will be available for a limited time only via CMEMS under catalogue ID: NORTHWESTSHELF_ANALYSIS_FORECAST_WAV_004_014. From the end of 2023 onwards, UKMCAS will be the only service providing this data. 

Northwest Shelf Ecosystem (AMM7 PHY-BGC)

Ocean physics and ecosystem analysis and 6-day forecast for the North-West European Atlantic shelf at 7km resolution on 24 depth levels. Full technical product details are available here. Provided under Open Government Licence (OGL) terms and conditions.

For Copernicus Marine Service users, please note this data product will be available for a limited time only via CMEMS under catalogue IDs: NWSHELF_ANALYSISFORECAST_PHY_LR_004_001 (containing physical variables only) and NWSHELF_ANALYSISFORECAST_PHY_LR_004_002 (containing biogeochemistry variables only). From the end of 2023 onwards, UKMCAS will be the only service providing this data. 

OSTIA Foundation SST and Sea-Ice

Global, observation-based Sea Surface Temperature and Ice concentration analysis at a 0.05° x 0.05° grid resolution. Full technical product details are available here. Provided under Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY) terms and conditions.

Global-Ocean (FOAM-ORCA025 PHY)

Global ocean analysis and 7-day forecast, coupled to global atmosphere model at a 0.25° x 0.25° grid resolution on 43 depth levels. Full technical product details are available here. Provided under Open Government Licence (OGL) terms and conditions.

This data product was retired from Copernicus December 2021.

Service hours and delivery times

The service is designed to be available 24*7. Data is delivered to an FTP server for collection by customers once daily. Typical data delivery times are;

AMM7 ~0830 UTC

AMM15 ~0930 UTC

AMM15 Wave ~0900 UTC

OSTIA ~0640 UTC

Global Ocean ~0730 UTC

A Service Information Sheet that outlines availability and support is available here.

How to sign-up

To sign-up to UKMCAS and begin accessing some or all of our marine data products please complete the following steps;

  1. Review available data section above and decide which data product(s) you’d like access to

  2. Read and ensure you’ve understood the Terms and Conditions for the data product(s) you intend to request access to

  3. Review the Service Information Sheet and familiarise yourself with support procedures (just in case these should be needed at any time)

  4. Complete this order form and send it to [email protected]

Upon receipt of the completed order form our teams will follow the relevant processes to setup an FTP account which will give you FTP/SFTP access to the requested data product(s). Please note, it may take up to 15 working days for this account to be created.

Once the account has been created successfully, you will receive an email to inform you that your data product(s) are now available for you to begin collecting. FTP account credentials and collection guidance will be provided as part of this email. You may then begin collecting the data products and use them in line with the relevant terms and conditions.   

How to make a change to your order (existing service user)

If you already have an FTP account and would like to change (add/remove) which data products you have access to please email [email protected]. Please include your account username in the email request. 

Have a question?

We have pulled together a collection of frequently asked questions about our marine data service which may be able to help.

Contact us

If you have any other questions on Met Office Marine Data Service (UKMCAS) please contact [email protected].