Nautical Charts in USA - National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

NOAA's Office of Coast Survey

National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is the USA's nautical chart-maker. NOAA is responsible for creating nautical charts, upgrading charts, surveying the seafloor, responding to maritime emergencies, and searching for underwater obstructions that pose a danger to marine navigation. NOAA's National Ocean Service provides nautical navigational products, tools, and services to ensure safe marine passage planning along the USA's coastal waters.

ABOUT NOAA NAUTICAL CHARTING

Whether it's the nation's nautical charts, environmental monitoring and assessment, or providing the nation’s geodetic framework, NOAA and its partners are committed to integrating science and services to provide actionable information. The goal is to increase ocean and coastal 'intelligence' and thereby improve the ability to navigate safely and make informed choices. Good decisions today protect lives and property tomorrow.

NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey maintains the nautical charts and publications for U.S. coasts and the Great Lakes, covering 95000 miles of shoreline and 3,4 million square nautical miles of waters.

NOAA’s Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System enables mariners to safely use every inch of available channel depth, thereby increasing the amount of cargo moved per transit. PORTS has been shown to reduce maritime accidents, such as groundings, by 50% or more.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charts the seas, conducts deep sea exploration, and manages fishing and protection of marine mammals and endangered species in the U.S. exclusive economic zone

NOAA's Services

NOAA works toward its mission through six major line offices, the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS), the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the National Ocean Service (NOS), the National Weather Service (NWS), the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) and the Office of Marine & Aviation Operations (OMAO) and in addition more than a dozen staff offices, including the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorology, the NOAA Central Library, the Office of Program Planning and Integration (PPI) (source: NOAA by Wikipedia)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration headquarters at Colesville Road and East-West Highway in Silver Spring, Montgomery County, Maryland, USA

Certified Charts & Products

These products meet U.S. Coast Guard carriage requirements for commercial vessels

NOAA ENC^®
NOAA's vector electronic navigational charts

NOAA Paper Charts
NOAA's traditional paper navigational charts

United States Coast Pilot^®
Sailing Directions

General Use Charts

These products do not meet U.S. Coast Guard carriage requirements for commercial vessels

NOAA Custom Chart
Create and download charts based on your own scale, extent, and paper size settings.

NOAA RNC^®
NOAA's raster navigational charts.

Full-size Nautical Charts
Full-size images of nautical charts.

BookletCharts^™
Page-size images of NOAA nautical charts.

Historical Charts
Images of maps and charts dating back to 1807

Official website https://www.noaa.gov/

Quick References

Nautical chart related products and information - http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov
Interactive chart catalog - http://www.charts.noaa.gov/InteractiveCatalog/nrnc.shtml
Report a chart discrepancy - http://ocsdata.ncd.noaa.gov/idrs/discrepancy.aspx
Chart and chart related inquiries and comments - http://ocsdata.ncd.noaa.gov/idrs/inquiry.aspx?frompage=ContactUs
Chart updates (LNM and NM corrections) - http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/updates/LNM_NM.html
Coast Pilot online - http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/nsd/cpdownload.htm
Tides and Currents - http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov
Marine Forecasts - http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/home.htm
National Data Buoy Center - http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/
NowCoast web portal for coastal conditions - http://www.nowcoast.noaa.gov/
National Weather Service - http://www.weather.gov/
National Hurricane Center - http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
Pacific Tsunami Warning Center - http://ptwc.weather.gov/
Contact NOAA - http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/staff/contact.htm

NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards (NWR)

is a nationwide network of radio stations broadcasting continuous weather information directly from the nearest National Weather Service office. NWR broadcasts official Weather Service warnings, watches, forecasts and other hazard information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/

Free PDF Nautical Charts - now available by National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Free PDF charts are one product of NOAA of easy-to-access maritime navigational products and services, they include print-on-demand Paper Nautical Charts too, Electronic Navigational Charts (NOAA ENC^®), and Raster Navigational Charts (NOAA RNC^®).