Data sources and licences
Submarius integrates public oceanographic and meteorological data. None of these providers are proprietary to us; we just consume them honestly, cache responsibly, and credit them visibly.
If you’re an upstream provider and you’d prefer different attribution or have rate-limit concerns, please contact us via the link on submarius.com.
Satellite ocean colour
NOAA CoastWatch ERDDAP
- What we use: Diffuse attenuation coefficient at 490 nm (Kd490) from VIIRS-SNPP daily L3 products, plus the multi-mission VIIRS+OLCI DINEOF gap-filled product. Chlorophyll-a from the same providers.
- Portal: https://coastwatch.noaa.gov/
- ERDDAP: https://coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov/erddap/
- Resolution: 750 m (regional sectors), 4 km (global)
- Latency: 1–3 day lag for daily L3 products; 10–12 days for the DINEOF gap-fill
- Licence: NOAA data is in the public domain in the US. Attribution appreciated.
- Notes: We cache responses with TTLs aligned to the upstream publication cadence. We don’t hammer the API.
NOAA NODD on AWS — GOES-16 ABI L1b
- What we use: Geostationary L1b radiance, processed via ACOLITE for atmospheric correction and ocean-colour extraction.
- Source: NOAA Open Data Dissemination programme, S3 bucket
noaa-goes16. - Resolution: 2 km nadir (CONUS)
- Cadence: hourly daylight, sub-30 second from publish
- Licence: Public domain. Attribution to NOAA.
- Citation: ACOLITE: Vanhellemont, Q. (2019). Daily metre-scale mapping of water turbidity using CubeSat imagery. Optics Express 27(20), A1372–A1399.
Atmosphere and marine forecast
Open-Meteo
- What we use: Marine forecast (wind, swell, wave, SST), forecast weather (precipitation, temperature, pressure), and historical weather (precipitation history for the clarity model).
- Portal: https://open-meteo.com/
- Licence: CC BY 4.0 — attribution required.
- Attribution: “Weather data by Open-Meteo.com” surfaced on conditions detail screens.
NOAA NDFD (National Digital Forecast Database)
- What we use: Short-range surface wind and marine forecast for the verdict computation.
- Portal: https://www.weather.gov/mdl/ndfd_home
- Licence: Public domain.
NOAA HRRR (High-Resolution Rapid Refresh)
- What we use: 3 km surface wind raster for the wind-particle overlay (Pro feature).
- Portal: https://rapidrefresh.noaa.gov/hrrr/
- Licence: Public domain.
Tides, currents, sea level
NOAA Tides & Currents
- What we use: Tide predictions, current predictions, observed water level, harmonic constants.
- Portal: https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/
- API: https://api.tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/api/prod/
- Licence: Public domain.
- Coverage: US coastal (CONUS, Alaska, Hawaii, territories).
For non-US locations we fall back to global tidal modelling via Open-Meteo Marine.
Sea-surface temperature overlay
NASA GIBS — GHRSST L4
- What we use: Daily SST raster for the map overlay (Pro feature).
- Portal: https://gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov/
- Licence: Public domain. Attribution to NASA EOSDIS GIBS.
Harmful algal blooms
NOAA Gulf Coast HAB Forecast
- What we use: Active HAB flags, severity (0–3), and bloom centre positions for the clarity-model penalty and the user-visible warning.
- Portal: https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/science-areas/habs/hab-forecasts/gulf-coast/
- Licence: Public domain.
- Coverage: Gulf of Mexico, Florida east coast.
Hydrology
USGS Water Services
- What we use: Real-time river discharge (parameter 00060), gauge height (00065), and turbidity (63680) for the river-plume penalty in the clarity model.
- API: https://waterservices.usgs.gov/docs/instantaneous-values/
- Licence: Public domain.
- Rate limit: 50 req/h without API key, 1000 req/h with key.
- Coverage: US-only.
Bathymetry
GEBCO (General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans)
- What we use: Global bathymetric grid, used for the depth cap on the clarity estimate and for the bathymetry overlay.
- Portal: https://www.gebco.net/
- Licence: GEBCO 2024 grid is freely available; users are asked to credit GEBCO.
ESRI World Ocean Base
- What we use: Bathymetry tile overlay for the map.
- Portal: https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=1e126e7520f9466c9ca28b8f28b5e500
- Licence: Used per ESRI’s terms of use (free for non-commercial embedded use; we proxy and cache to stay under their fair-use guidance).
Cartography
OpenStreetMap
- What we use: Coastlines, marine features (reefs, wrecks, harbours, channel markers), nautical-relevant POIs.
- Portal: https://www.openstreetmap.org/
- Licence: ODbL — attribution required and database-share-alike.
- Attribution: “© OpenStreetMap contributors” surfaced on the base map.
NOAA ENC (Electronic Navigational Charts)
- What we use: US nautical chart features (channels, obstructions, depth contours).
- Portal: https://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/charts/noaa-enc.html
- Licence: Public domain.
Marine Regions
- What we use: Maritime boundaries (EEZ, territorial waters).
- Portal: https://www.marineregions.org/
- Licence: CC BY 4.0.
Protected Planet
- What we use: Marine Protected Area boundaries.
- Portal: https://www.protectedplanet.net/
- Licence: Open data; attribution to UNEP-WCMC and IUCN required.
Marine biology
iNaturalist
- What we use: Crowd-sourced species observations for the fish-ID tile grid (location-filtered species presence).
- Portal: https://www.inaturalist.org/
- Licence: Per-observation; we use only CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-NC observations.
OBIS (Ocean Biodiversity Information System)
- What we use: Authoritative species occurrence records for seasonal range modelling.
- Portal: https://obis.org/
- Licence: CC BY 4.0.
WoRMS (World Register of Marine Species)
- What we use: Species taxonomy, biology, habitat.
- Portal: https://www.marinespecies.org/
- Licence: CC BY 4.0.
- Cache TTL: 30 days (taxonomy doesn’t change often).
Shark tracking
OCEARCH
- What we use: Tagged-shark position pings.
- Portal: https://www.ocearch.org/
- Licence: Per OCEARCH’s data sharing terms; we cache and surface positions with attribution.
Reverse geocoding
Public Nominatim (OSM)
- What we use: Reverse geocoding of lat/lon to nearby place names (display only; never used as a model input — see the data-honesty page for why).
- Portal: https://nominatim.org/
- Licence: ODbL via OpenStreetMap.
Submarius-internal
The following are computed in-house, not pulled from a third party:
- Astronomical — sun, moon, solunar, twilight times. Computed via standard astronomical formulae (Meeus); no external API.
- Reefs and wrecks structure overlay — built from OSM features plus per-state datasets where they exist.
- Activity-rated verdicts (clarity, bite, GO/NO) — composed in our own backend from the inputs above.
Attribution policy
Submarius surfaces the active data providers in two places:
- Per-feature, in the conditions detail view. When you tap into the water-clarity breakdown, every contributing source is listed.
- In the app’s About / credits page. All providers above are listed with their licence terms.
If you’re a provider and want different wording or different placement, get in touch.