
Noaa rnc chart viewer software#
Producing and distributing raster charts requires separate computer software and data storage systems from those used to produce ENCs, as well as other specialized cartographic training and processing. Digital ENC updates are posted weekly and can be applied automatically by electronic navigation systems.Īt the end of 2020, NOAA maintained 1,007 paper and raster charts, comprising over 2,000 separate main chart panels and insets – compiled in over 100 different scales.
Noaa rnc chart viewer free#
NOAA ENCs can be downloaded, free of charge, from the Office of Coast Survey website ( ), or obtained through a regional ENC coordinating center (RENC) subscription service for a nominal fee. After purchase, mariners must consult these same publications and apply weekly changes manually. Coast Guard (USCG) Local Notice to Mariners (LNM) and the Notice to Mariners (NM) published by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). POD charts contain all critical corrections published in the U.S. NOAA paper nautical charts are printed and distributed through NOAA certified print-on-demand (POD) chart agents. Detail from 1:80,000 scale chart, “New York Bay and Harbor and the Environs,” published in 1845 by the U.S. These digital files were initially used to make NOAA’s suite of RNCs, and ultimately used as the basis for the NOAA ENC product created in the 1990s.įigure 1. This is when NOAA started modernizing its analog chart production system by scanning color-separates used to make press plates for the multi-color lithographic printing of paper nautical charts. The retirement of traditional paper nautical charts is the next logical step in a transition that began in the 1980s. NOAA nautical chart products include over 1,000 traditional paper and raster charts, over 2,000 ENCs, and ten volumes of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which collectively comprise over 3.6 million square nautical miles (over 12.3 million square km). coastal waters, the Great Lakes, and the U.S. The office maintains nautical charts and publications for U.S. Now an office within NOAA, the Office of Coast Survey has a staff of nearly 200 cartographers, hydrographers, scientists, and other skilled technicians. Survey of the Coast was founded in 1807 and published its first nautical charts in the 1840s ( Figure 1). The ENC will remain as NOAA’s premier nautical chart product.ģ. All of these associated products will be discontinued when the corresponding paper chart is canceled.
Noaa rnc chart viewer portable#
These are raster navigational charts (RNC) 2, full-sized images of nautical charts in portable document format (PDF), and NOAA BookletCharts™ – reduced-size replicas of nautical charts that have been divided into a dozen or more 8½ x 11-inch pages for home printers. In addition to traditional paper charts, NOAA produces three other products from the same raster images used to make paper charts. NOAA is now cancelling 20 to 30 paper and raster charts per month – generally canceling larger scale charts first. NOAA is ending production of traditional paper charts to enable the creation and maintenance of higher quality, more up-to-date, larger scale (more detailed), electronic navigational chart coverage and other ENC-based products and services. NOAA is no longer able to satisfactorily maintain both traditional paper nautical charts and the modern NOAA electronic navigational chart (NOAA ENC®) 1 product. These charts and the corresponding digital raster chart products are being removed from the NOAA inventory in a process that will be completed by January 2025. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is canceling its entire suite of 1,007 traditional paper nautical charts.

Introduction – What is Happening to NOAA’s Paper Nautical Charts? NOAA is refocusing resources to provide higher quality, more up-to-date, larger scale (more detailed), electronic navigational chart coverage and other ENC-based products and services.Ģ. These included the challenge of maintaining two separate nautical chart production systems, one for raster and one for electronic navigational charts (ENC) growing demand for more timely and more detailed nautical chart coverage diminishing use of paper nautical charts and greater acceptance and use of ENCs by commercial vessels and recreational boaters.

This decision was driven by many factors. In late 2019, the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) started a five-year program to end production and maintenance of its traditional paper nautical charts and corresponding raster chart products and services.
