“The first modeled, historical water level and wave dataset for the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf coasts was released today by NOAA’s National Ocean Service (NOS). This comprehensive dataset — known as Coastal Ocean Reanalysis (CORA) — advances NOAA’s ability to better serve the nation’s coastal communities and lays the foundation for future NOAA coastal flooding products. The CORA dataset delivers more than 40 years of modeled, historical water level and wave information every 500 meters — or roughly every quarter mile — along the U.S. coastline. This long-term water level data was previously only available at NOAA tide gauge locations, which in some areas of the coast can be hundreds of miles apart. CORA’s denser data resolution between tide gauges closes gaps in data coverage along the coast, ensuring more communities will have access to historical water level data to assess coastal flood risk. “Historical coastal water level information is necessary to assess changing flood risks to communities and to predict the likelihood of flooding,” said Nicole LeBoeuf, director of NOS. “This new dataset will improve NOAA’s current flood-risk assessment tools and help scientists develop new coastal flood products and services for the nation.” The new dataset provides the scientific and research community with access to previously unavailable historical data that can help advance research, machine learning and policymaking in a variety of sectors, such as coastal resource management and energy planning. CORA can be used by city planners, engineers, flood management professionals and decision makers to support their coastal flood planning efforts with more accessible historical information.”