|
|
FREE: Electronic Navigational Charts from NOAA
Navigational Charts are one of the most fundamental tools available to the mariner, often costing a bundle, particularly if they are of the Digital-Electronic kind. Now thanks to NOAA, if you have the time and know-how, you can access their huge inventory of Nautical Charts and download them for FREE. Thats Right, FREE! These are the same kind of charts that you are familiar with in a paper form, or the waterproof paper variety, that you were recently willing to pay as much as $199 per CD-Rom for! Usually a particular geographic region to upload into your Laptop navigational setup, often requiring several CDs, to completely chart a particular objective.
These NOAA Charts are quite detailed to include local soundings and a full color graphic portrayal of the marine environment. Depicting the nature and form of the coastline, the general configuration of the sea bottom, locations of dangers to navigation, locations and characteristics of man-made aids to navigation and other features useful to all mariners. Nauticals Chart are an essential tool for safe navigation. NOAA’s Electronic Navigational Chart (ENC) is a vector- based digital file containing marine features suitable for marine navigation. It is based on the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) S- 57 standard. The NOAA ENCs are available free via the internet at:
http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/enc/index.htm
The Office of Coast Survey’s Historical Map & Chart Collection contains over 20,000 maps and charts from the late 1700s to present day. The collection includes some of the nation’s earliest nautical charts, hydrographic surveys, topographic surveys, geodetic surveys, city plans and Civil War battle maps.
The Collection is a rich primary historical archive and a testament to the artistry of copper plate engraving technology of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The Historical Map & Chart Project scans each map or chart and offers the images free to the public via the Coast Survey web site. The Project is managed by the Cartographic & Geospatial Technology Program of the Coast Survey Development Laboratory. Notable offerings include maps of Vancouver’s explorations; the “Wilkes Atlas” of the U.S. Exploring Expedition; James Whistler’s Anacapa Island chart; an extensive Civil War collection; a large scale topographic series of Washington, D.C.; city plans; the re-engraving of the famous 1792 L’Enfant and Ellicott plan for Washington D.C.; NOAA Chart Update Disclaimer - Please read carefully While information provided by this web site is intended to assist in the updating of nautical charts, it must not be used as a substitute for the United States Coast Guard, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency or Canadian Coast Guard Notice to MarinerPublications
 The NOAA Photo Library has been produced to help bring the work of one of America’s most remarkable Government agencies to the American people.
The NOAA collection spans centuries of time and much of the natural world from the center of the Earth to the surface of the Sun. NOAA is descended from the oldest physical science agencies in the United States Federal Government including the Coast Survey (1807), Weather Service (1870) and Fish Commission (1871). The NOAA of today carries on the work begun by these agencies under the auspices of the National Ocean Service, the National Weather Service , the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service. Because of this broad base of scientific expertise and the geographic range under which NOAA science and observations are conducted, the NOAA collection includes thousands of weather and space images, hundreds of images of our shores and coastal seas, and thousands of  marine species images ranging from the great whales to the most minute plankton. The geographic range of NOAA work encompasses polar region to polar region and much of the World’s oceans. On any given day NOAA personnel could be chasing tornadoes, flying into hurricanes, battling stormy seas, tagging turtles and whales, taking scientific readings at the South Pole, monitoring the health of coral reefs, or engaging in virtually any task that can be thought of related to monitoring our environment and the health of our planet. Check out NOAA on its journey through the sciences and over the face of our planet, under its waves, and into space!
http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/
|
|
