The io.github.mansurjisan/rtofs-mcp Model Context Protocol (MCP) server provides NOAA RTOFS global ocean forecast data. It supports retrieving sea surface temperature (SST), salinity, currents, and depth profile information using CoastWatch ERDDAP.

🛠️ Key Features

NOAA RTOFS global ocean forecast access
Data types: SST, salinity, currents, depth profiles
Backend/source: CoastWatch ERDDAP

🚀 Use Cases

Query global ocean forecast conditions for SST
Retrieve salinity and current forecasts for ocean monitoring
Obtain depth profile data from NOAA RTOFS via ERDDAP

⚡ Developer Benefits

MCP-compatible interface for NOAA RTOFS data
Works with CoastWatch ERDDAP as the data provider
Targets forecast datasets relevant to multiple ocean variables

⚠️ Limitations

Details on tool availability, formats, authentication, and output structure are not provided in the available source data.

OceanMCP

A monorepo of independently installable MCP servers for ocean and coastal data workflows.

Servers

Server	PyPI	Description
coops-mcp		NOAA CO-OPS tides, water levels, currents, meteorological data
erddap-mcp		Universal ERDDAP data access across 80+ public servers
nhc-mcp		NHC storm tracks, advisories, HURDAT2 best track data
recon-mcp		Hurricane reconnaissance data (HDOB, Vortex Data Messages, ATCF fixes)
stofs-mcp		NOAA STOFS storm surge forecasts and observation validation
ofs-mcp		NOAA OFS regional ocean model forecasts (water level, temperature, salinity)
rtofs-mcp		NOAA RTOFS global ocean forecasts (SST, salinity, currents, SSH) via HYCOM THREDDS
ww3-mcp		GFS-Wave (WAVEWATCH III) forecasts and NDBC buoy wave observations
ndbc-mcp		NOAA NDBC buoy observations — waves, SST, wind, pressure (1,300+ stations)
winds-mcp		NWS surface wind observations from ASOS / AWOS stations
usgs-mcp		USGS Water Services — streamflow, NWS/NWPS flood status, peak events
goes-mcp		NOAA GOES-18/19 satellite imagery — visible, infrared, water vapor
adcirc-mcp		ADCIRC model setup debugging, parameter lookup, config validation
schism-mcp		SCHISM model setup debugging, parameter lookup, config validation

No API keys required for the data servers — all servers above use free, publicly available datasets. The exceptions are hpc-system-mcp and ufs-runner-mcp (below), which require actual NOAA RDHPCS cluster access and, in ufs-runner-mcp's case, submit real Slurm jobs.

Additional servers live in this repo but are not yet published to PyPI (install from source): vdatum-mcp (vertical datum conversion), hpc-system-mcp and ufs-runner-mcp (NOAA RDHPCS / UFS-Coastal HPC workflows — require cluster access), and alert-mcp (CO-OPS threshold alerting).

There is also a 19th server in this repo, nos-workflow-mcp, which is experimental and still a work in progress (its full implementation lives on an unmerged branch — main carries only a minimal subset). It's intentionally left out of the table above and not yet ready for general use.

Quick Start

Install from PyPI

bash

# uvx (recommended) — runs without permanent install, like npx for Python
uvx coops-mcp

# pip — install into current environment
pip install coops-mcp

# pipx — install in isolated environment with CLI entry point
pipx install coops-mcp

Replace coops-mcp with any published server: erddap-mcp, nhc-mcp, recon-mcp, stofs-mcp, ofs-mcp, rtofs-mcp, ww3-mcp, ndbc-mcp, winds-mcp, usgs-mcp, goes-mcp, adcirc-mcp, schism-mcp.

Install from source

bash

git clone https://github.com/mansurjisan/ocean-mcp.git
cd ocean-mcp/servers/coops-mcp  # or any other server directory under servers/
uv sync

Configure your MCP client

Add to your MCP settings (e.g., project .mcp.json):

Using PyPI packages (recommended):

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "coops": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["coops-mcp"]
    },
    "erddap": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["erddap-mcp"]
    },
    "nhc": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["nhc-mcp"]
    },
    "recon": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["recon-mcp"]
    },
    "stofs": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["stofs-mcp"]
    },
    "ofs": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["ofs-mcp"]
    },
    "rtofs": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["rtofs-mcp"]
    },
    "ww3": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["ww3-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Using local source checkout

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "coops": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "--directory", "/path/to/ocean-mcp/servers/coops-mcp", "python", "-m", "coops_mcp"]
    },
    "erddap": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "--directory", "/path/to/ocean-mcp/servers/erddap-mcp", "python", "-m", "erddap_mcp"]
    },
    "nhc": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "--directory", "/path/to/ocean-mcp/servers/nhc-mcp", "python", "-m", "nhc_mcp"]
    },
    "recon": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "--directory", "/path/to/ocean-mcp/servers/recon-mcp", "python", "-m", "recon_mcp"]
    },
    "stofs": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "--directory", "/path/to/ocean-mcp/servers/stofs-mcp", "python", "-m", "stofs_mcp"]
    },
    "ofs": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "--directory", "/path/to/ocean-mcp/servers/ofs-mcp", "python", "-m", "ofs_mcp"]
    },
    "rtofs": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "--directory", "/path/to/ocean-mcp/servers/rtofs-mcp", "python", "-m", "rtofs_mcp"]
    },
    "ww3": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "--directory", "/path/to/ocean-mcp/servers/ww3-mcp", "python", "-m", "ww3_mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Example Queries

With servers configured, you can ask your AI assistant naturally:

CO-OPS queries:

"Get current water levels at The Battery, NY"
"Find tide stations near Miami Beach"
"What are the flood statistics for Charleston, SC?"
"Show me the sea level trend at San Francisco"

ERDDAP queries:

"Search for sea surface temperature datasets on CoastWatch"
"Get chlorophyll data off the California coast for January 2024"
"What ERDDAP servers cover the US East Coast?"
"List all glider datasets on IOOS Gliders ERDDAP"

NHC queries:

"Are there any active tropical cyclones right now?"
"Show me Hurricane Katrina's track"
"Search for Category 5 hurricanes in the Atlantic"
"What is the forecast track for the active storm?"

Recon queries:

"List HDOB reconnaissance flights for the 2024 Atlantic season"
"Get HDOB flight-level observations from October 7, 2024"
"Show me the Vortex Data Messages for Hurricane Milton"
"Get ATCF aircraft fix data for storm AL14 2024"

STOFS queries:

"Get the STOFS water level forecast for The Battery, NY"
"Compare STOFS forecast vs observations at Boston for the past 24 hours"
"What are the top stations with highest predicted water levels?"
"Find STOFS stations within 50 km of New Orleans"

OFS queries:

"What OFS models cover the Chesapeake Bay?"
"Get the water level forecast at lat 38.98, lon -76.48 from CBOFS"
"Compare CBOFS water level with CO-OPS observations at station 8571892"
"List available NGOFS2 forecast cycles for today"

RTOFS queries:

"Get the RTOFS sea surface temperature forecast at 40°N, 74°W"
"Show me a temperature depth profile in the Gulf Stream"
"What RTOFS datasets are currently available on HYCOM THREDDS?"
"Get a vertical transect of salinity from Miami to Bermuda"
"Show the SST area forecast for the Gulf of Mexico"

WW3 queries:

"What GFS-Wave model grids are available?"
"Find NDBC buoys near Cape Hatteras"
"Get the latest wave observations from buoy 41025"
"Show me the GFS-Wave forecast at 35°N, 75°W for the next 48 hours"
"Compare the wave forecast against buoy 41025 observations"

Cross-server queries:

"Find CO-OPS stations near this ERDDAP buoy location"
"Compare tide station data with nearby ERDDAP satellite SST"
"Is there an active hurricane threatening the Gulf Coast? If so, show me the STOFS surge forecast for New Orleans"
"Get the CBOFS water level forecast at Chesapeake Bay and compare it with the CO-OPS tide prediction for the same station"
"Show me sea surface temperature from ERDDAP near The Battery and the current water level from CO-OPS"
"Which NHC storms have hit the Gulf Coast historically? Show the CO-OPS flood statistics for impacted stations"
"Get the STOFS gridded forecast and the OFS water level forecast at the same location and compare them"

Architecture

Each server is fully self-contained with its own pyproject.toml, dependencies, and tests. See docs/architecture.md for details on shared conventions.

Shared patterns across servers:

FastMCP for MCP server framework
httpx for async HTTP clients
Pydantic models, with Literal[...] types for constrained parameters
Read-only tools by default — the data-fetching servers only fetch, never modify, anything. ufs-runner-mcp (submits/cancels Slurm jobs) and alert-mcp (creates/pauses/deletes in-memory alert state) are the two exceptions, each with a small number of tools marked readOnlyHint=False
response_format output as markdown (default), json, geojson, or image, depending on the tool
Actionable error messages with suggestions

See CONVENTIONS.md for the full response/behavior contract (output caps, retrieved_at, error format, HTTP retries, dependency bounds).

Citation

If you use this project in your research or work, please cite:

bibtex

@software{jisan2025oceanmcp,
  author    = {Jisan, Mansur Ali},
  title     = {Ocean MCP: Real-Time Marine Data, MCP-Native},
  year      = {2025},
  url       = {https://github.com/mansurjisan/ocean-mcp},
  note      = {MCP servers for NOAA CO-OPS, ERDDAP, NHC, Recon, STOFS, OFS, RTOFS, WW3, NDBC, USGS, winds, GOES, ADCIRC, and SCHISM data}
}

License

Licensed under the MIT License. You may use, modify, and distribute this software under the MIT terms. See LICENSE for details.

NOAA RTOFS MCP Server