International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set

Beginning in 1981, the Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere data set (COADS) began construction within the United States.

In March 2002, two degree grids were created on a monthly basis for the years 1800 through 1949, and in recognition of input from other countries such as the United Kingdom and Germany,[2] the database was renamed ICOADS.

[3] Following format changes to BUFR on the World Meteorological Organization Global Telecommunications System (GTS) in recent years, ICOADS began decoding near-real-time BUFR observations and merging them with Traditional Alphanumeric Code (TAC) formats for a new near-real-time version in 2022.

Data in the time frame from 1662 through the early 1800s in quite sparse, as ship voyages covered only small areas of the globe in those days.

[1] Based upon data from ICOADS, wind reports from moored weather buoys were determined to have smaller error than those from ships.