Category: Navigation products

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NOAA’s 2025 hydrographic survey season is gearing up and will be underway soon

An image showing a red uncrewed surface vessel and NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson on Lake Erie in the vicinity of Cleveland, Ohio

The winter months represent an end to NOAA’s active survey season. During this period, hydrographic survey ships, navigation response team survey vessels, and contractor teams and vessels undergo maintenance and repair in anticipation of the upcoming survey season. NOAA’s 2025 survey season will begin soon as planned survey projects go through the planning and development process and begin to filter to the forefront of each field party’s focus. The ships and survey vessels collect bathymetric data (i.e. map the seafloor) to support nautical charting, modeling, and research, but also collect other environmental data to support a variety of ecosystem sciences. NOAA considers hydrographic survey requests from stakeholders such as marine pilots, local port authorities, the Coast Guard, and the boating community, and also considers other hydrographic and NOAA science priorities in determining where to survey and when. Visit our “living” ArcGIS StoryMap to find out more about our mapping projects and if a hydrographic vessel will be in your area this year!

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NOAA updates bridge clearances crossing one of the most important waterways in the United States

An image showing the Crescent City Connection Bridges taken from the left ascending bank of the Mississippi River with the city of New Orleans in the background.

The Port of New Orleans, is one of the largest ports in the United States. It spans both sides of the Mississippi River in the state of Louisiana, with its lower limit situated approximately 80 miles above the confluence of three major passes used to access the river from the Gulf of Mexico. The city of New Orleans serves as the primary commercial hub within the port’s limits. As one of the largest cities along the Gulf Coast, it is a natural gateway for trade, connecting the vast central and southern regions of the nation, particularly the entire Mississippi River Valley, via numerous inland water routes.

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NOAA’s nowCOAST improves BlueTopo access

A screen capture of the BlueTopo data layer displayed in NOAA's nowCOAST showing the entrance to Long Island Sound.

NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey produces and maintains several types of data models and products, from operational forecast systems to nautical charts. One of these models comes from the office’s National Bathymetric Source, or NBS, program which creates and maintains high-resolution bathymetry composed of the best available data. Bathymetry is a term that refers to the depths and shapes of underwater terrain and is a visualization of the “beds” or “floors” of water bodies, including the ocean, rivers, streams, and lakes. This data model is available to the public in a product called BlueTopo.

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The Office of Coast Survey’s ongoing response to the Francis Scott Key Bridge disaster

An image of the largest outbound vessel in the Fort McHenry Channel since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse.

On Tuesday, March 26, 2024, the 984-foot M/V DALI allided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge near Baltimore, Maryland, sending the bridge tumbling into the Patapsco River, resulting in the tragic loss of six construction workers, and triggering a local, state, and federal response. Large sections of the bridge’s structure lay across the main shipping channel into the Port of Baltimore closing the deepest shipping lane into and out of the port, and resulting in an estimated loss of $15 million in daily economic activity for the area. All shipping traffic was diverted from the area, enabling first responders to conduct high-priority rescue and recovery operations and allowing highly trained salvage crews to begin the arduous task of removing bridge wreckage. Due to the amount of debris in the water, it was evident that salvage operations would take some time, and the priority at the time was to open the port for at least some vessel traffic.

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Bringing nautical charts of the Erie Canal into the digital era

The construction of the Erie Canal was one of 19th Century America’s most significant feats of engineering. Built between 1817 and 1825, the canal provided a water route from Albany to Buffalo, New York, nearly 363 miles to the west. The Canal connected the Hudson River with the Great Lakes via parts of the Mohawk River, through various land cuts and natural lakes. The New York State Public Works Department and the US War Department’s Corps of Engineers began geographically documenting the canal’s route with maps and nautical charts beginning in 1917. The Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration took ownership of the charts in the early 1970’s and has maintained and updated them for over 50 years. Currently, these charts are undergoing changes to usher them into the digital era of electronic navigational charts.

Check out our digitizing the Erie Canal ArcGIS StoryMap linked here or click the image below!

An image showing the Erie Canal at Waterford, New York during a festival.
An image showing the Erie Canal at Waterford, New York during a festival. Credit: Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor/Halldor K. Sigurdsson.
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NOAA releases 2023 hydrographic survey season plans

An image showing all NOAA hydrographic survey vessels.

NOAA hydrographic survey ships, navigation response teams, and contractors are preparing for the 2023 hydrographic survey season. The ships and survey vessels collect bathymetric data (i.e. map the seafloor) to support nautical charting, modeling, and research, but also collect other environmental data to support a variety of ecosystem sciences. NOAA considers hydrographic survey requests from stakeholders such as marine pilots, local port authorities, the Coast Guard, and the boating community, and also considers other hydrographic and NOAA science priorities in determining where to survey and when. Visit our “living” ArcGIS StoryMap to find out more about our mapping projects and if a hydrographic vessel will be in your area this year!

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Conducting survey operations with Coast Survey’s navigation response teams

An image showing the navigation response team retrieving the survey vessel from the water.

Strategically placed around the country, NOAA’s navigation response teams―30-foot survey vessels with a three-person survey team―maintain emergency readiness while checking chart accuracy in changing ports and harbors. Navigation response teams work day-to-day in ports and harbors, collecting data to update the nation’s nautical charts. They measure depths, locate obstructions, report dangers to navigation, and update features for safe navigation. Whether there is a need to investigate wrecks, check for suspected shoals, conduct surveys for coastal management, or work with other federal agencies to support homeland security, Coast Survey’s navigation response teams have the expertise to get the job done safely and efficiently.

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Have it your way – creating customized nautical charts using the latest data

An image showing the output of the NOAA Custom Chart application with a chart covering the western side of the Chesapeake Bay.

Nautical charts have always contained a great amount of information – even more so with electronic navigational charts. This information is constantly being updated, necessitating the need to keep your nautical chart suite as current as possible. The Office of Coast Survey’s online NOAA Custom Chart application enables users to create nautical charts directly from the latest official NOAA electronic navigational chart (NOAA ENC®) data. Users now have the ability to create their own nautical charts using individually set parameters, and then save this custom nautical chart as a file that can be viewed or printed.

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NOAA ocean mapping and reef surveys in the Mariana Islands

NOAA Ship Rainier alongside Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. on a sunny day with white clouds in the sky.

On March 26, NOAA Ship Rainier  set sail from Honolulu, Hawaii on a 3,307-nautical mile expedition to the Western Pacific. Originally planned for 2020, this will be the ship’s first multidisciplinary expedition to Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. This collaborative mission between NOAA’s National Ocean Service and National Marine Fisheries Service will deliver high‐quality data, data products, and tools to the region including a seamless map linking hilltops to underwater depths and integrated data on the surrounding coral reef ecosystems. These data can provide information for countless users to make critical management decisions within disciplines such as habitat management and restoration, tsunami modeling, monitoring, and marine resource management.

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