The latest NOAA nautical charts and chart-related publications are available on the Office of Coast Survey website Get the latest NOAA nautical charts and chart-related publications online at Nautical Charts & Publications.

Here’s a quick overview of the seven types of nautical charts that NOAA produces. Most electronic charts are updated weekly.

Traditional paper charts are what mariners have long used to navigate U.S. coastal waters, including the Great Lakes and U.S. territories. These full-color, large-format charts can be purchased through a nationwide network of private chart sellers.

Print-on-Demand (POD) nautical charts are timely versions of traditional paper charts. NOAA does not sell POD charts directly to the public. NOAA's commercial partner, OceanGrafix, lists authorized chart agents that sell POD charts.

Online Chart Viewer allows mariners to view the latest version of the full NOAA chart suite on their computer screens, pan and zoom around charts, and print chartlets at home.

NOAA Raster Navigational Charts® (NOAA RNC®) are full-color digital images of NOAA's entire suite of paper charts, updated continually with critical corrections. They can be used in many electronic charting systems and offer advanced functionalities such as real-time positioning. Available for free download in BSB format.

NOAA Electronic Navigational Charts® (NOAA ENCs) are NOAA's most powerful electronic charting product. These layered vector charts, available for free download, can be used in Electronic Chart and Display Information Systems (ECDIS).

PocketCharts™ are inexpensive, introductory charts to help novice boaters answer their two most common questions: "Where am I?" and "How do I get there?" PocketCharts cost about $6 at marine supply stores.

BookletCharts™ are free, print-at-home experimental products to help recreational boaters locate themselves on the water. Small-scale BookletCharts, in letter-sized format, contain all of the information on full-scale nautical charts. Note: During this experimental period, BookletCharts are not updated every week.

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NOAA considers a historical map or chart any map or chart that is not used today because it is out of date The Office of Coast Survey maintains a historical map and chart collection of over 35,000 scanned, high-resolution images. The collection includes some of the nation’s earliest nautical charts, bathymetric maps, city plans, and Civil War battlefield maps.

Nautical charts are one of the most fundamental tools available to mariners, depicting the nature and form of the coast, the general configuration of the sea bottom, water depths, locations of dangers to navigation, locations and characteristics of human-made aids to navigation, and other features useful to the mariner.

Additionally, many of historical charts also depict events reflecting the geographic landscape at that time. For example, within the Office of Coast Survey's collection is a Chattanooga battlefield map from 1863 which is considered one of the best Civil War maps at that time.

While the historical map and chart collection dates back to the 1700s, the Office of Coast Survey, which formed in 1807 as the first federal scientific agency, produced its first charts in the early 1840s.

Electronic copies of images within the collection are available, by free download, to the public.


For more information:
Historical Map and Chart Collection, Office of Coast Survey

Charting a More Perfect Union: Special Collection of Civil War Charts

Diving Deeper: Episode 29 (December 16, 2010) - Historical Charts and Maps

New Online, a NOAA Civil War Collection



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More specifically, the EEZ includes waters three to 200 miles (five to 322 kilometers) offshore (or nine to 200 miles – 14.5 to 322 kilometers – offshore in western Florida and Texas). Coastal states are responsible for inshore waters out to three miles (five kilometers) of the coast (or nine miles, 14.5 kilometers, off the west coast of Florida and off Texas).

Within the EEZ, the U.S. has

sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring, exploiting, conserving and managing natural resources, whether living and nonliving, of the seabed and subsoil and the superjacent waters and with regard to other activities for the economic exploitation and exploration of the zone, such as the production of energy from the water, currents and winds; jurisdiction as provided for in international law with regard to the establishment and use of artificial islands, installations, and structures, marine scientific research, and the protection and preservation of the marine environment, and other rights and duties provided for under international law (Presidential Proclamation No. 5030 of March 10, 1983). For more information:
Office of Coast Survey
Download EEZ Limits



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Nautical charts show what is in, under, and around the water, to help mariners transit our waters safely. The time it takes to develop a new nautical chart varies and it depends on the intensity of the ship travel in the area and the availability of resources to develop the new chart.

For example, if a new nautical chart is needed in an area that has current survey data, a new chart can be produced in six to 12 months. In a more remote area such as the north slope of Alaska, a new chart may take several years to develop because of the amount of survey work that needs to be done.

Another consideration in developing new nautical charts is the length of the survey season in different locations. The survey season is the time available to collect the data needed to develop a new chart. The survey season in Alaska is only a few months each year so it may take several years to collect the necessary data to develop a new chart. The Gulf of Mexico, on the other hand, can be surveyed during almost any time of the year.

It is easier to update existing nautical charts, but these updates can still be time and labor intensive. An estimate to complete an update for an existing chart is three to four weeks. Ports with high shipping activity, such as the Port of Long Beach or New York Harbor, may be updated as frequently as two or three times per year because of the intensity of traffic and the high value of cargo in these areas.

For more information:
Office of Coast Survey
A History of Charting America's Waters, NOAA 200th Anniversary Web Site
Diving Deeper Podcast, Episode 5 (Mar. 23, 2009) - What is a nautical chart?
Nautical Charts: A Message in a Bottle, NOS Education

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Soundings are water depth measurements that indicate how deep the water is in a particular area in either feet or fathoms. A fathom is a nautical unit of measurement and is equal to six feet.

On a chart, sounding data with the same values are usually connected with a line known as a depth contour, similar to the topographic lines or surface features that you see on a map. Depth contours present a picture of the bottom to the mariner.

A nautical chart is a graphic portrayal of the marine environment showing the nature and form of the coast, the general configuration of the sea bottom, including water depths, locations of dangers to navigation, locations and characteristics of human-made aids to navigation, and other features useful to the mariner.

For more information:
Office of Coast Survey
A History of Charting America's Waters, NOAA 200th Anniversary Web Site
Diving Deeper Podcast, Episode 5 (Mar. 23, 2009) - What is a nautical chart?
Nautical Charts: A Message in a Bottle, NOS Education

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A nautical chart is one of the most fundamental tools available to the mariner. It's a graphic portrayal of the marine environment showing the nature and form of the coast, the general configuration of the sea bottom, including water depths, locations of dangers to navigation, locations and characteristics of human-made aids to navigation and other features useful to the mariner.

The nautical chart is essential for safe navigation. In conjunction with supplemental navigational aids, it is used by the mariner to lay out courses and navigate ships by the shortest and most economically safe route. Over 98 percent of the nation’s cargo is carried by waterborne transportation—and all of those ships rely on nautical charts to find their way.

 

For more information:
Office of Coast Survey
A History of Charting America's Waters, NOAA 200th Anniversary Web Site
Nautical Charts: A Message in a Bottle, NOS Education

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You may be surprised to learn that the National Ocean Service is responsible for surveying in support of the nation's airports and airspace.

NOAA has played a role in our nation's aviation industry since the early 1900s. Today, the National Geodetic Survey (part of NOS) administers the Aeronautical Survey Program. This program provides highly accurate position, height, and orientation information needed for safe air navigation.

NGS has been performing aeronautical surveys since the 1920s. These surveys provide critical information about airport features and about obstructions and aids to navigation. The Federal Aviation Administration uses this information to establish airport approach and departure procedures, determine maximum takeoff weights, update aeronautical publications, and conduct airport planning and construction studies.

 

For more information:

National Geodetic Survey (NGS)
NGS Aeronautical Survey Program
NGS Aeronautical Survey Program photo gallery (airports around the nation)
Are We Cleared To Land? The Wright Brothers Help NOAA Show The Way

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