https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jdfn2z3j1

microSWIFT buoys measure waves and other ocean surface parameters. Raw data are collected in "bursts" which are processed onboard the buoy to produce standard wave products. An overview of the SWIFT program is at http://www.apl.washington.edu/SWIFT

Description of the data and file structure

There is a separate data file for each buoy and for each mission, with a naming convention "buoyID_missionname_missiondate"

Date files are provided in both netCDF and Matlab format.\
The netCDF files use WMO standard variable names.
The matlab files use data structures with the same results as following fields:

SWIFT.CTdepth: depth below the ocean surface of the conductivity and temperature sensor (relates to SWIFT.watertemp and SWIFT.salinity)

SWIFT.ID: buoy serial number

SWIFT.lat: latitude in decimal degrees. This is the postition at the end of the wave burst.

SWIFT.lon: longitude in decimal degrees. This is the postition at the end of the wave burst.

SWIFT.peakwavedirT: wind direction, in degrees FROM North

SWIFT.peakwaveperiod: peak of period of wave spectra

SWIFT.replacedvalues: number of raw data points (out of 8192) that were removed by onboard despiking before calculating wave statistics.

SWIFT.salinity: water salinity, in PSU, at 0.2 m below the surface. This is the average of 10 samples at the end of the wave burst.

SWIFT.sigwaveheight: significant wave height, in meters

SWIFT.time: UTC timestamp in MATLAB datenum format (serial days since 0 Jan 0000). This is the time at the end of the wave burst.

SWIFT.watertemp: water temperature, in deg C, at 0.2 m below the surface. This is the average of 10 samples at the end of the wave burst.

SWIFT.wavespectra.energy: wave energy spectral density, in m^2/Hz, as a function of frequency.

SWIFT.wavespectra.freq: spectral frequencies, in Hz

SWIFT.wavespectra.a1: normalized spectral directional moment (positive east)

SWIFT.wavespectra.b1: normalized spectral directional moment (positive north)

SWIFT.wavespectra.a2: normalized spectral directional moment (east-west)

SWIFT.wavespectra.b2: normalized spectral directional moment (north-south)

SWIFT.driftspd: speed in m/s that the buoy is drifting

SWIFT.driftdirT: direction that the buoy is drifting, relative to true North

The data should be viewed as time series.  In matlab 

>> plot([SWIFT.time],[SWIFT.sigwaveheight]) 

The linked codes on GitHub include plotSWIFT.m, which has more comprehensive data visualization for the .mat files.  

The .nc  files can be viewed with Panoply.  

Sharing/Access information

Realtime and past telemetry from microSWIFT buoys is publically available via http queries to swiftserver.apl.washington.edu. Users are warned that telemetry data accessed directly are provisional and have not passed quality control / quality assurance.

The http query syntax is described here:
https://github.com/SASlabgroup/SWIFT-codes/blob/master/Documents/SWIFT_telemetry_access.pdf
And python package is available here:\
https://github.com/SASlabgroup/microSWIFTtelemetry\
There is also a Matlab function to pull telemetry directly in this repo \
https://github.com/SASlabgroup/SWIFT-codes\
which requires the Matlab fixed-point designer toolbox to read half-float precision values.