NOAA, National Ocean Service, Office of Coast Survey, Marine Chart Division is responsible to build and maintain a suite of more than 1000 nautical charts that are used by commercial and recreational mariners to navigate the United States and U. S. territory waters safely.A Nautical Chart is a graphic portrayal of the marine environment. They are used to lay out courses and navigate ships by the shortest and most economically safe route. They can also serve as base maps for resource management and shoreline development planning by state and local government.Charts depict the location of the shoreline, minimum water depths, aids to navigation, hazards to navigation, the nature and form of the coast, water depths, the general character and configuration of the sea bottom, the rise and fall of the tides, protected areas, and the characteristics of the Earth's magnetism.The suite of charts is compiled and maintained with data provided by federal, state, and private partners such as the National Ocean Service elements, United States Coast Guard, United States Army Corps of Engineers, United States Power Squadron Auxiliary, Port Authorities.The charts are currently available as Lithographically printed paper charts, Electronic Raster Nautical Charts (RNCs), up-to-date paper charts (printed with print on demand technology), and are now offered as Digital Vector Electronic Nautical Charts (ENC).The NOAA RNCs are electronic images of the NOAA paper charts. The NOAA RNCs were productized with a successful Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with private sector partner BSB Electronic Charts, a subsidiary of Maptech, Inc. Andover, Massachusetts. As of November 1, 2005 the NOAA RNC's are available for free download via the NOAA website.

NOAA's ENC Direct to GIS web portal provides comprehensive access to display, query, and download all available NOAA ENC data in a variety of GIS/CAD formats for non-navigational purposes using Internet mapping service technology. An area of the bottom of a body of water which has been deepened by dredging.(IHO Dictionary, S-32, 5th Edition, 1462)

These data show the boundaries for select vessel routing measures in U.S. waters. These measures are part of an international ships routing system established by the IMO. Routing systems are systems of predetermined routes and related measures that are recommended for use by, and may be made mandatory for, all ships, certain categories of ships or ships carrying certain cargoes when adopted and implemented in accordance with the guidelines and criteria developed by the [IMO] and are designed to contribute to the safety of life at sea, safety and efficiency of navigation, and/or protection of the marine environment. SOLAS Chapter V, reg. 10, para. 1. For coastal and ocean planning. Not for navigation.

These data represent the boundaries of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) eleven regional associations (RAs). There are thousands of ocean observing tools in use every day-satellites in orbit, gliders, buoys, high-frequency radar, sharks with satellite tags, sensors on the ocean floor, and more operated by different organizations and researchers. IOOS, a national-regional partnership, gathers and integrates many of those data streams and makes those observations compatible and accessible by science, industry, government, and citizens. RAs design regional coastal observing systems to meet the unique needs of the regional environment and stakeholders. The eleven IOOS RAs maintain and operate regional coastal observing systems and develop information products for their users. The RAs provide increased observations, distinctive knowledge, and critical technological abilities, and apply these towards the development of products to meet regional and local needs

This data set is an LAZ (compressed LAS) format file containing LIDAR point cloud data. This data set is an LAZ (compressed LAS) format file containing LIDAR point cloud data. In March 2012, WSI (Watershed Sciences, Inc.) was contracted by Woolpert, Inc. (Woolpert) to collect Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data and digital imagery in the fall of 2012 for the Bridge Creek LiDAR site in Oregon. The LiDAR survey used a Leica ALS60 laser system, classified to ground and non-ground points, stored in LAS 1.2 format. WSI (Watershed Sciences, Inc.) was contracted by Woolpert, Inc. (Woolpert) to collect Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data for the Bridge Creek LiDAR site in Oregon. The project area delivered is 9163 square acres. These files contain classified topographic lidar data as unclassified valid topographic data (1), and valid topographic data classified as ground (2). Classes 1 and 2 are defined in accordance with the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) classification standards.

These data provide an accurate high-resolution shoreline compiled from imagery of NOME HARBOR, AK . This vector shoreline data is based on an office interpretation of imagery that may be suitable as a geographic information system (GIS) data layer. This metadata describes information for both the line and point shapefiles. The NGS attribution scheme 'Coastal Cartographic Object Attribute Source Table (C-COAST)' was developed to conform the attribution of various sources of shoreline data into one attribution catalog. C-COAST is not a recognized standard, but was influenced by the International Hydrographic Organization's S-57 Object-Attribute standard so the data would be more accurately translated into S-57. This resource is a member of https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/39808

The Inland Electronic Navigational Charts (IENC) dataset is updated bi-monthly by the US Army Corps (USACE)/Army Geospatial Center (AGC), and part of U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)/Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD). There is a partial delivery on the 1st and 15th business day of a month. If there is a need for a special chart delivery, occasionally there will be updates outside of the delivery cycle. The charts with data changes are released either as new editions or updates to existing IENCs on a regular delivery cycle. These IENCs were developed from available data used in maintenance of Navigation channels. These vector data, that make up the charts, can be downloaded as a geodatabase here: https://ienccloud.us/ienc/products/files/U37/ienc_master_dataset_gdb/USACE_IENC_Master_Service_gdb.zip. In addition, web mapping services of the feature classes/datasets can be found here: https://ienccloud.us/arcgis/rest/services/IENC_Feature_Classes. Users of these IENCs should be aware that some features and attribute information could have significant inaccuracies due to changing waterway conditions, inaccurate source data, or approximations introduced during chart compilation. Caution is urged in use of these IENCs or derived products for navigation planning or operation, or any decisions pertaining to or affecting safety of vessel operation. Only charts downloaded from the USACE chart server, https://ienccloud.us, and used in an Electronic Chart Display Information System (ECDIS) or Electronic Chart System (ECS), or official government chart books are suitable for navigation.

From August 15- September 2, 2021, NOAA Ocean Exploration conducted mapping operations on the Blake Plateau within U.S. waters, aiding in closing the gaps within this region. This cruise consisted of a strategic transit from Newport, Rhode Island to the primary working grounds off of the U.S Southeast, aimed at collecting data over previously mapped and potentially new seeps along the edge of the continental shelf. EX-21-05 collected 13,054 square kilometers of bathymetry and associated water column data, 12,989 square kilometers of which were within the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone and Territorial Sea deeper than 200 m. The cruise concluded in Port Canaveral, FL on September 2, 2021. The exploratory mapping operations conducted during this cruise will provide initial characterization of the region, as well as data to support further exploration with remotely operated vehicles planned for EX-21-07.

From October 16-November 3, 2022 (San Diego, California to Newport, Oregon), NOAA Ocean Exploration conducted mapping operations off the coast of California and Oregon in U.S. waters, aiding in closing bathymetric gaps within this region. Expedition EX-22-08 collected 32,416 square kilometers of bathymetry and associated water column data, 22,313 square kilometers of which were within the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone and Territorial Sea deeper than 200 m, while 10,104 square kilometers were collected in international waters. During mapping operations, NOAA Ocean Exploration simultaneously collected EM 304 multibeam sonar bathymetry observations and Simrad EK60/EK80 split-beam fisheries sonar observations of biologic material in the water column, as well as Knudsen 3260 sub-bottom profiler observations of sub-seafloor geologic structure and sediment. A detailed sub-bottom survey targeted previously-identified sponge reefs in the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. The exploratory mapping operations conducted during this cruise will provide initial characterization of the region, as well as data to support further exploration.

From September 5 - September 28, 2021, NOAA Ocean Exploration conducted mapping operations on the Blake Plateau within U.S. waters, aiding in closing the gaps within this region. The second of two cruises focused on mapping this region, EX-21-06 collected 25,800 square kilometers of bathymetry and associated water column data, 25,790 square kilometers of which were within the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone and Territorial Sea deeper than 200 m. The exploratory mapping operations conducted during this cruise will provide initial characterization of the region, as well as data to support further exploration with remotely operated vehicles planned for EX-21-07.