e-Navigation – Page 3 – Office of Coast Survey

September 19, 2019

Register for NOAA Nav-cast webinar: NOAA’s nowCOAST

UPDATE: The Nav-cast scheduled for 9/26 at 1 p.m. (EDT) is cancelled and will be rescheduled at a later date. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Join us for our next NOAA Nav-cast, a quarterly webinar series that highlights the tools and trends of NOAA navigation services.

NOAA’s nowCOAST: A one-stop-shop for coastal conditions before you head out on the water

NOAA’s nowCOAST (nowcoast.noaa.gov) — a free online interactive map viewer —provides situational awareness on present and future weather and oceanographic conditions for mariners and other coastal users by integrating data from across NOAA and regional observing systems. Users can assess present conditions by creating maps of the latest in-situ weather/marine weather observations, weather radar mosaics, cloud images from GOES weather satellites, and surface wind and sea-surface temperature analyses for the last few hours. Users can also obtain maps of critical weather/marine weather advisories, watches, and warnings, weather forecasts, tropical cyclone track and intensity forecasts, and forecast guidance of water levels, water temperature, salinity, and currents from NOAA oceanographic forecast models. Users can display these maps using the nowCOAST map viewer or by connecting to its map services. nowCOAST operates in a high-availability hosting facility and is monitored 24 x 7.

September 12, 2019

S-100 sea trials: working toward harmonized navigation products

International team participating in the S-100 sea trial.

By Julia Powell, deputy division chief of the Coast Survey Development Lab

On August 27, an international contingent from the United States (NOAA), the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, and the Canadian Hydrographic Service participated in the S-100 sea trial in Busan, Republic of Korea.

S-100 is the International Hydrographic Organization’s (IHO) Universal Hydrographic Data Model’s framework standard from which a variety of product specifications can be developed for use within navigation systems and marine spatial data infrastructure. For many years, NOAA and the Ministry of Fisheries of the Republic of Korea have had a Joint Project Agreement and one of the projects is to develop and promote and S-100 test bed. This test bed is designed to help further the development of S-100 infrastructure used to develop S-100 related products and further the testing of S-100 interoperability within navigation systems.

July 30, 2019

NOAA hosts 2019 Nautical Cartography Open House and Chart Adequacy Workshop

Sean Legeer shows a digital cartography display to visiting students.

Last week, NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey held its third annual Nautical Cartography Open House welcoming over 250 attendees from the U.S. and abroad. Government agencies, industry and academic partners, and members of the public attended. The open house featured posters, presentations, tours, and exhibits centered around four themes: Bathymetric Databases, Custom Charting, Innovative Cartography, and Precision Navigation. Dr. Shachak Pe’eri, organizer of the event and chief of the Cartographic Support Branch in the Marine Chart Division, welcomed attendees in the morning and John Nyberg, chief of the Marine Chart Division, gave the keynote speech.

July 22, 2019

NOAA releases new navigational chart viewers

On July 20, 2019, NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey unveiled two new GIS viewers — NOAA ENC® viewer and NOAA RNC® viewer — allowing users to seamlessly interact with NOAA’s various chart products.

May 22, 2019

NOAA releases 2019 hydrographic survey plans

NOAA Hydrographic Survey Projects 2019 story map cover

NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey is the nation’s nautical chartmaker, and maintains a suite of more than a thousand nautical charts. Coast Survey is responsible for charting U.S. waters and Great Lakes covering 3.4 million square nautical miles (SNM) of water and 95,000 miles of coastline.

NOAA’s hydrographic survey ships along with hydrographic contractor vessels, recently kicked off the 2019 hydrographic survey season. These surveys not only update the suite of nautical charts, but also help to maintain the safety of maritime commerce, recreational boaters, natural ecosystems, and much more. Operations are scheduled for maritime priority areas around the country and are outlined in Coast Survey’s “living” story map. Here is a list of where they are headed this year:

May 7, 2019

NOAA releases new edition of nautical chart symbol guide

Edition 13 of U.S. Chart No. 1 is now available to download for free on Coast Survey’s website. Paper copies may also be purchased from any of four NOAA Chart No. 1 publishing agents.

This 130-page book describes the symbols, abbreviations, and terms used on paper NOAA nautical charts and for displaying NOAA electronic navigational chart (NOAA ENC®) data on Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS). The document also shows paper chart symbols used by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and symbols specified by the International Hydrographic Organization.

April 23, 2019

NOAA encourages all mariners to use NOAA ENC® for latest updates and other advantages

ECDIS display on the bridge of a tanker ship.

NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey maintains a suite of over 1,000 NOAA electronic navigational charts (ENC) and paper nautical charts, and like many other chart producing nations, maintains an ENC focused production process called “ENC-first.” That is, ENCs are the “first” or primary nautical product, and new data is compiled onto ENCs before all other products.

March 28, 2019

U.S. Coast Pilot® now contains Navigation Rules

NOAA recently announced that all nine United States Coast Pilot^® volumes now contain the U.S. Coast Guard International Regulations for the Prevention of Collisions at Sea (72 COLREGS) and the Inland Navigation Rules — commonly known as the “Rules of the Road.” The navigation rules are similar to rules on the highway as they present a consistent way to navigate safely and avoid collisions. Having the newly published Coast Pilot now fulfills the legal requirement for mariners to maintain a copy of these regulations on board.

February 13, 2019

NOAA Improves Etolin Strait Data with New NOAA ENC® Layout

Etolin Strait survey area and reschemed grid

NOAA recently released 13 new large-scale electronic navigational charts (NOAA ENC®) of Etolin Strait, Alaska. These charts provide a nearly twenty-fold increase in scale over the previous ENC coverage. New Etolin Strait hydrographic surveys and the resulting ENCs served as a pilot project for the overall rescheming of the entire NOAA ENC suite with a regular, gridded layout for ENC charts, as outlined in NOAA’s National Charting Plan. No corresponding NOAA raster nautical chart products in Etolin Strait will be produced. This is in keeping with Coast Survey’s “ENC-only” production concept, which generally maintains the current raster chart product coverage, but only creates new larger scale coverage in the ENC product line.

Continue reading “NOAA Improves Etolin Strait Data with New NOAA ENC® Layout”

November 16, 2018

NOAA makes it easier to submit a comment or report a nautical chart error

On November 16, 2018, NOAA released ASSIST, a new system for submitting questions and reporting nautical chart errors to NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey. ASSIST has a mobile-friendly design and improved user interface that allows customers to access the system conveniently from any device. This new tool replaces Coast Survey’s Inquiry and Discrepancy Management System (IDMS), a database that collected nearly 20,000 comments, inquiries, and discrepancy reports since 2008. ASSIST is available from: https://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/customer-service/assist/ Continue reading “NOAA makes it easier to submit a comment or report a nautical chart error”