The Research Vessel Surface Meteorology Data Center (RVSMDC) at FSU has a long standing policy to ensure free and open access to underway marine meteorological observations. For SAMOS, the policy ensures that all data provided to FSU will be redistributed to the user community and national archive centers without any restrictions or "holds". Data providers are requested to notify the SAMOS data center in writing (samos@coaps.fsu.edu) if they have any concerns with this free and open data policy.

At present, all users of the SAMOS data distributed on this site are anonymous. In the future, the data center reserves the right to implement a login system for data access. This system will be designed in a manner that will not violate our free and open policy (all users will be allowed to register). The only reason for implementing a login system would be to better track the number and type of data users. This user information will be helpful as we seek funding to support the SAMOS data center.