The Met Office shares in WMO co-ordinated monitoring of the Global Observing System, by acting as lead centre for monitoring the quality of surface marine observations. This encompasses observations from ships, drifting buoys, moored buoys and other fixed marine platforms. One of the tasks as lead centre is to compile the Biannual Report on the Quality of Marine Surface Observations.

The Met Office also holds a monitoring role in the international Voluntary Observing Ships (VOS) scheme and is the Real-Time Monitoring Centre for the international Voluntary Observing Ships Climate (VOS-Clim) Project which aims to provide a high-quality subset of marine meteorological data to support global climate studies. Tables of monitoring statistics for the individual ships in the VOS fleets (as listed in WMO's "Pub 47" document) and overall timeliness data are now produced by the Met Office each month and can be found via the links below.

VOS Monthly Monitoring Reports

VOS Time of Receipt Statistics

Monthly Drifting Buoy Monitoring Statistics

Biannual Report on the Quality of Marine Surface Observations

Annual VOS Ranking List