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Go Mobile with NOS

Get Ocean and Coastal Info on the Go

This page provides a handy reference of all ocean- and coast-related mobile websites and free applications produced by or in partnership with NOAA. A mobile website is a version of a standard website that is optimized for viewing on mobile devices. A mobile app is a stand-alone application designed to run on a smartphone or other mobile device. Typically, apps must be downloaded and installed from an online store.

Mobile Websites

  • National Ocean Service. Bookmark the National Ocean Service site to get news, Ocean Facts, podcasts, images, and video on the go.


  • CAMEO Chemicals. This site has thousands of chemical response datasheets and a tool to predict possible safety hazards if chemicals were mixed together during a hazardous materials incident. It is part of the CAMEO® software suite developed by NOS' Office of Response and Restoration and the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Emergency Management. It is also available as a mobile app (for iOS and Android) that can run without an internet connection.


  • C-CAP Land Cover Atlas. This interactive map from NOS's Office for Coastal Management provides an easy way to access data derived through NOAA's Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP). C-CAP uses multiple dates of remotely sensed imagery to produce nationally standardized land cover and land change information for the coastal regions of the U.S. These products provide inventories of coastal intertidal areas, wetlands, and adjacent uplands.


  • Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services. Looking for information on tides and currents? This site from NOS's Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services, also known as "CO-OPS," is where you want to head. CO-OPS and its predecessors have gathered tide and currents information along our nation's coasts for over 200 years.


  • Coral Reef Conservation Program. This mobile site from NOS's Coral Reef Conservation Program serves up news and feature stories, coral facts, photos, and more straight to smartphone users. The new site includes a mobile-optimized version of a glossary and acronyms from the NOAA Coral Reef Information System (CoRIS).


  • Digital Coast. This site is the primary delivery mechanism for NOS's Office for Coastal Management web-based products and services, including data, tools, training, case studies (stories from the field), and how-to resources showing users how to apply Digital Coast resources.


  • Hawai'i Tsunami Information Service. This mobile site, from NOS's Office for Coastal Management and the State of Hawai'i, provides residents and visitors of the State of Hawai`i easy, online access to the state's tsunami evacuation zone maps as well as information about potential risks, how to prepare, and what to do in the event of a tsunami.


  • Education Resources. NOAA offers a wide variety of ocean- and coast-related education resources in a mobile-friendly website, with topics ranging from marine mammals, to ocean currents, to life in an estuary.


  • North Carolina Living Shorelines. NOAA teamed up with The Nature Conservancy to create this tool, which provides coastal communities in North Carolina access to the best available science and accurate local data for erosion and other coastal hazards. The app allows communities to visualize their risks, while also examining where conservation and restoration activities can be utilized to increase resilience and reduce risk.


  • Marine Debris Program. The NOAA Marine Debris Division, part of NOS's Office of Response and Restoration, envisions the global ocean and its coasts free from the impacts of marine debris. Our mission is to investigate and prevent the adverse impacts of marine debris.


  • Mobile Emergency Response Imagery. NOS's National Geodetic Survey is developing a new mobile site to deliver aerial imagery needed by field responders following events like hurricanes or tornados. While still in development, imagery for 2012's Hurricane Sandy and 2011's Hurricane Irene and Joplin, Missouri tornado are available now.


  • National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science. This site from NOS's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science delivers news, information, tools, and research from NOS's focal point for coastal ocean science. While still in development, most site pages are designed to dynamically scale to fit any screen, from smartphone to tablet to jumbotron.


  • Office for Coastal Management. NOS's Office for Coastal Management delivers data, tools, training, and technical assistance in core areas of expertise including geospatial technologies, training, and social science.


  • Office of Response and Restoration. NOS's Office of Response and Restoration is a center of expertise in preparing for, evaluating, and responding to threats to coastal environments, including oil and chemical spills, releases from hazardous waste sites, and marine debris.


  • PORTS® Coastal Observations and Predictions. This mobile site from NOS's Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services provides coastal navigation observations and predictions for busy ports around the nation. Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System, or PORTS®, provides mariners with information ranging from water levels to winds to water temperature.


  • Real-Time Data from Research Reserves. This mobile site offers access to real-time weather and water quality data available from the System-Wide Monitoring Program of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS). The app was developed by the NERRS Centralized Data Management Office, which is supported through a cooperative agreement between NOAA's Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management and the University of South Carolina.


  • Sea Level Rise Viewer. This interactive data viewer from NOS's Office for Coastal Management provides coastal managers and scientists with a preliminary look at sea level rise and coastal flooding impacts. The viewer is a screening-level tool that uses nationally consistent data sets and analyses. Data and maps provided can be used at several scales to help gauge trends and prioritize actions for different scenarios.


  • PacIOOS Voyager. This mobile site, from the Pacific Islands Ocean Observing Systems (part of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System®), provides easy access to real-time ocean observations, forecasts, and related information for the Pacific region.


iOS Apps

  • BayCurrents. This free app displays maps of high resolution surface currents within the San Francisco Bay using surface current data NOAA. The app was produced in collaboration with NOAA's Integrated Ocean Observing System and the Central & Northern California Ocean Observing System.


  • CAMEO Chemicals. From hazards and incident response recommendations to public safety guidelines and chemical property information, this app lets emergency responders and planners learn more about thousands of hazardous chemicals. It also includes a tool to predict if an explosion, toxic gas byproduct, or other safety hazard might occur if a group of chemicals were mixed together. It is part of the CAMEO® software suite developed by NOS' Office of Response and Restoration and the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Emergency Management.


  • Catch Reporting. NOAA Fisheries' Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Management Division manages a number of fish species in U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico waters known as highly migratory species (HMS). These fish—tuna, sharks, swordfish, and billfish—live throughout the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico and often migrate long distances. Because these species cross domestic and international boundaries, the HMS Management Division is responsible for managing them under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. In cooperation with an advisory panel, the division develops and implements fishery management plans for these species taking into account all domestic and international requirements under the Atlantic Tunas Convention Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.


  • CrowdMag. Do you want to be a part of scientific research? Use your phone to keep track of the magnetic field, and contribute data as a citizen scientist with this app from NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center. Once background recording is enabled, share data and view maps and graphs from all over the world. Help NOAA scientists understand more about the Earth’s magnetic field!


  • Dolphin & Whale 911. This app enables you to immediately report stranded dolphins, whales, manatees and seals in the Southeastern United States (Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). The app was developed by NOAA Fisheries.


  • Fish Online. This app is made for fishermen in the Northeast of the USA who are required to submit IVR reports based on their Federal Fishing Permit, Exempted Fishing Permit or Research Set-Aside program. This is a free service provided by NOAA Fisheries and is an alternative to the existing telephone-based IVR system.


  • Fish Rules. This app provides saltwater recreational regulations for U.S. state and federal waters from Maine to Texas plus the Bahamas. State marine regulations for Florida, Georgia, South & North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. Federal regulations for the Greater Atlantic, Mid Atlantic, South Atlantic, and Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Councils.


  • See & ID Dolphins & Whales. Wildlife and nature enthusiast, dolphin tours, eco-tours, whale watching tours, educators and scientists will find this app useful to identify and learn about dolphins, whales, seals and manatees while also learning how they can protect marine mammals by responsibly watching them in the wild. The app was developed by NOAA Fisheries.


  • SeaPhoto. This app includes more than 1,300 photos of central Californian marine life, some with detailed ecological information. SeaPhoto is developed by NOS's Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, in partnership with the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Foundation.


  • Marine Debris Tracker. This app allows you to help make a difference by checking in when you find trash on our coastlines and waterways. This is an effort of NOS's Marine Debris Program and the Southeast Atlantic Marine Debris Initiative (SEA-MDI) out of the University of Georgia Faculty of Engineering.


  • SOS Explorer. SOS Explorer (SOSx) Mobile is a free, flat screen mobile app version of the popular NOAA Science On a Sphere (SOS). SOSx Mobile can immerse the user in animated images such as Saturn’s rings, atmospheric storms, climate change, and ocean temperatures to help explain sometimes complex environmental processes in a way that is intuitive, captivating, interactive, and entertaining.


  • WhaleALERT. This app, from NOS's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries and partners, augments existing ship navigation tools informing mariners of the safest and most current information to reduce the risk of ship and whale collisions on the East and West Coast of the United States.


  • TsunamiEvac-NW. This app, from the Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems (part of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System®), displays Oregon and Washington tsunami evacuation zone maps developed by the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries and the Washington Department of Natural Resources.


  • NANOOS Visualization System. This app, from the Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems (part of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System®), provides easy access to ocean data for Pacific Northwest waters, from California to British Columbia.


  • Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System. This iOS app from National Marine Fisheries Service's Chesapeake Bay Office provides real-time observations from buoys within the Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System.


  • Florida State Parks and Beaches Outdoors Guide. This app includes the Florida Coastal Access Guide, which provides information about the Florida Coastal Management Program, as well as links to NOAA rip current, surf zone forecast, and marine debris websites. The Florida Coastal Management Program created the guide with funding from the Coastal Zone Management Act.


  • NOAA Extreme Weather Information Sheet (NEWIS). This app, created by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information, offers the popular NOAA Extreme Weather Information Sheet. NEWIS is designed to be a "one stop" reference with links to national, state, and local websites and phone numbers that coastal residents can use before, during, and after weather emergencies.


Android Apps

  • BayCurrents. This free app displays maps of high resolution surface currents within the San Francisco Bay using surface current data NOAA. The app was produced in collaboration with NOAA's Integrated Ocean Observing System and the Central & Northern California Ocean Observing System.


  • CAMEO Chemicals. From hazards and incident response recommendations to public safety guidelines and chemical property information, this app lets emergency responders and planners learn more about thousands of hazardous chemicals. It also includes a tool to predict if an explosion, toxic gas byproduct, or other safety hazard might occur if a group of chemicals were mixed together. It is part of the CAMEO® software suite developed by NOS' Office of Response and Restoration and the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Emergency Management.


  • CrowdMag. Do you want to be a part of scientific research? Use your phone to keep track of the magnetic field, and contribute data as a citizen scientist with this app from NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center. Once background recording is enabled, share data and view maps and graphs from all over the world. Help NOAA scientists understand more about the Earth's magnetic field!


  • Fish Rules. This app provides saltwater recreational regulations for U.S. state and federal waters from Maine to Texas plus the Bahamas. State marine regulations for Florida, Georgia, South & North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. Federal regulations for the Greater Atlantic, Mid Atlantic, South Atlantic, and Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Councils.


  • Marine Debris Tracker. This app allows you to help make a difference by checking in when you find trash on our coastlines and waterways. This is an effort of NOS's Marine Debris Program and the Southeast Atlantic Marine Debris Initiative (SEA-MDI) out of the University of Georgia Faculty of Engineering.


  • Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System. This app from National Marine Fisheries Service's Chesapeake Bay Office provides real-time observations from buoys within the Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System.


  • Florida State Parks and Beaches Outdoors Guide. This app includes the Florida Coastal Access Guide, which provides information about the Florida Coastal Management Program, as well as links to NOAA rip current, surf zone forecast, and marine debris websites. The Florida Coastal Management Program created the guide with funding from the Coastal Zone Management Act.


  • SOS Explorer. SOS Explorer (SOSx) Mobile is a free, flat screen mobile app version of the popular NOAA Science On a Sphere (SOS). SOSx Mobile can immerse the user in animated images such as Saturn’s rings, atmospheric storms, climate change, and ocean temperatures to help explain sometimes complex environmental processes in a way that is intuitive, captivating, interactive, and entertaining.