NOAA supports paper chart users with weekly chart updates

Sea Technology, Mar 2001 by Gean, Kirby A, Arkenau, Leonard J, Black, Daniel M

Emphasis on Development and Production of Digital Charts, New Charting Products and Weekly Update Scenarios

Before we get into the discussion of how NOAA currently supports the conventional paper chart user, we would like to mention two new NOAA products. NOAA, aided by two private partners, has introduced two new digital base products that include a weekly update service for each. These two new products: Raster Nautical Charts (RNC), distributed by Maptech, and Print on Demand charts (POD), distributed by OceanGrafix, represent a major step forward on NOAA's part in providing chart corrections in almost real time.

The availability of near real-time updates of NOAA-originated corrections for paper charts using the Internet is a scheduled release in concert with these two new navigation products.

To obtain more information about these new NOAA products, visit http://critcorr.ncd.noaa.gov and select Print-on-Demand Product. For information about RNCs, select the New Products link.

Also available through the General Information link are charting contacts where you can obtain information about any of the activities of the Marine Chart Division (MCD) within the Office of Coast Survey (OCS), National Ocean Service.

Mariners Who Use Paper Charts

During the past few years, NOS nautical chart production has taken advantage of mapping and charting production technology and is now able to provide contemporary nautical chart corrections, representing potential dangers to navigation, every week in chart image form.

It was obvious during the early design and development of RNC and POD chart technology, and the weekly update service for each, that weekly update support for conventionally printed charts had to be improved soon, as printed paper charts will be available for the foreseeable future. With the revamping of chart production practices, the time delay for providing nautical chart revisions to the marine public is at an end.

NOAA provides 22 percent of the annual corrections published by the United States Coast Guard in its Local Notices to Mariners (LNM). Many of the corrections are also included in the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) Notices to Mariners.

NOAA-originated critical chart corrections deal with a multitude of dangerous items and conditions, changing channel depths and information used to update the United States Coast Pilot.

Since NOAA-originated chart corrections are made available through the new NOAA RNC and POD chart products, and also through published USCG and NIMA weekly Notices to Mariners, it was easy and it made good sense to provide them also as soon as discovered to paper chart users.

The Advantage

As critical chart corrections are determined by NOS cartographers from the thousands of documents used in nautical chart production, they are applied to the nautical chart database and processed for immediate release through the Critical Corrections website.

The NOAA-originated chart corrections posted on the Critical Corrections website are available in advance of their appearance in USCG LNMs and NIMA NMs.

Quite simply, notification of new dangers to surface navigation, e.g., obstructions, rocks, wrecks, shoals channel conditions, overhead obstructions and critical references in the United States Coast Pilot, to name a few, are available to you via the web before your paper USCG LNM or NIMA NM arrives in the mail.

This does not mean that there is anything wrong with the notification process through Notice to Mariners, it only means that technology has made it very easy to disseminate data on a near real-time basis.

Although you still have to hand correct your nautical chart, early notification of these critical chart corrections via the NOAA Critical Corrections website is extremely convenient. It provides a number of ways to obtain updates of NOS critical findings, making it a very valuable navigating supplement for advanced warning of dangers.

Improvements for 2001

The Critical Corrections website saw 30,000 hits its first year. NOAA is preparing for additional traffic by making improvements to the web site to make it more responsive.

Additionally, later in 2001, the web site will contain USCG-originated chart corrections for aids to navigation. Since they are presently available weekly through NOAA's RNC and POD products, they will be made available through the Critical Corrections web site also.

A few corrections to USCG published aids to navigation are included on the website now (they are posted when found to be in error on NOAA charts). However, weekly published USCG LNM corrections are not presently available on the web site.

Increased Accuracy

The addition of published USCG aid corrections from notices will be of benefit to the mariner as they are applied and certified by NOAA cartographers performing chart maintenance. Discrepancies found between published notices and published charts are always resolved prior to application.

Although the improved Critical Corrections website provides advance notification of NOAA-originated chart corrections and will provide USCG-- originated chart corrections, it does not contain other important critical navigation information published in USCG or NIMA Notices to Mariners.