The observational records are maintained in two formats. One is called Long Marine Report Fixed-length format (LMRF), and the other one is called International Maritime Meterological Archive (IMMA) format. LMRF is a customized binary packed format designed to store large amounts of data with minimum file size, while IMMA is a new international standard format to help facilitate data entry, provide for the more effective exchange of existing national archives, and ensure that the data and metadata are preserved as accurately and completely as possible. Note: For data beyond 2004, please see NOAA's ICOADS website.
For access to the full global archive in either LMRF or IMMA format, please go directly to the online global archives.
The data are also available in ASCII format.