This page provides near-realtime MCC surface current data for the U.S. west coast (California coast only at this point). Each day, new currents are computed for cloud-free portions of the most recent AVHRR thermal infrared imagery and MODIS ocean color imagery. Near-realtime AVHRR data is provided by Ocean Imaging Corporation (http://oceani.com/). Velocity vectors are progressively processed into 3-day and 7-day composites. The 3-day composite is updated daily, while the 7-day composites and animation are updated every Sunday night. The composite data files contain the location and MCC velocity information corresponding to each composite image. They are text files with 2 header lines and the following 5 columns of data: longitude, latitude, u-velocity (zonal), v-velocity (meridional), correlation coefficient. The first header line is the date/time range of the composite data. The second header line specifies the following 5 parameters: # of x grid points, # of y grid points, image x-size, image y-size, correlation coefficient (arbitrary). Altimetry-derived surface velocities are shown in white on merged composite images older than 7 days.