...
On 6 June 2016 ECMWF started passively monitoring BUFR BUOY data in its operational system, assimilation will probably start in July or August. For drifting buoys the BUFR feed is almost complete now helped by the fact that fewer data producers are involved (there are 23 Indian and Japanese drifting buoys not using the approved template as yet). There are 51 pressure-reporting buoys reporting in BUFR but not in FM18, some of these are moored buoys including 7 PIRATA or RAMA buoys which also report subsurface temperature and salinity (the subsurface BUFR data are not yet processed by ECMWF). More details of the marine data can be found in the E-SURFMAR pages (one issue is the move from 5-digit to 7-digit identifiers, this means that some newer buoys cannot really be coded using FM18). The plot below compares FM18 data with reports available in templates 315008 (moored buoys) and 315009 (drifting buoys). It does not include the moored buoys that currently report in TM13 (SHIP) code - at some point these will start using the 315008 template. Note that almost half the buoys shown do not report pressure (especially those in the tropical Pacific and the Mediterranean, they are deployed to measure SST and currents).
(Grey: TAC reports but no BUFR, Purple: BUFR reports but no TAC. Both TAC and BUFR: light blue - fewer BUFR, dark blue - similar numbers, green - more BUFR. Circles/triangles - drifting/moored buoys.)
...