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Office of Coast Survey TextLibrary

Many of these publications are in a Portable Document Format (PDF). To read and print a PDF document, you must have the Adobe Acrobat Reader software installed on your PC. Adobe Systems, Inc. permits the Office of Coast Survey and other organizations to offer this software to the public free of charge. You can download the Adobe Acrobat Reader version suitable for your system by clicking on the Adobe button below. Remember to enable the "Load to Disk" capability of your browser prior to downloading the Adobe Acrobat Reader. After you download the Adobe Acrobat Reader, return to this page and download the File.

AWOS User's Guide

This user's guide provides information for interpreting data that is listed in the Automated Wreck and Obstruction Information System (AWOIS) database, containing approximately 10,000 submerged wrecks and obstructions in the coastal waters of the United States.

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Behind the Accuracy of Electronic Charts

This article (reformatted) appeared in Sea Technology - March 2001 Issue. What Every Mariner Should Know about Electronic and Paper Charts. By Captain Nick Perugini.

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Coast Pilot

The United States Coast Pilot consists of a series of nautical books that cover a variety of information important to navigators of coastal and intracoastal waters and the Great Lakes. Issued in nine volumes, they contain supplemental information that is difficult to portray on a nautical chart.

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Collaborative Nautical Charting and Scientific Seabed Mapping Missions: A Case Study in the NWHI

At the OCEANS 2003 Conference, Ben Evans of the Coast Survey Development Laboratory presented work with NOAA Fisheries Coral Reef Program, National Marine Sanctuaries Program and Office of Ocean Exploration, and the University of Hawai‘i Undersea Research Laboratory in mapping the NW Hawai'ian Islands.

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Data Management Systems for Digital Side Scan Data and Shallow Water Multibeam Data

Written by Gardner, Glang, Noll and Jacobs, this Paper was presented in Plymouth, England, at the HYDRO '99 Conference, the 11th Biennial Symposium of the Hydrographic Society, January 5-7, 1999.

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Distances Between United States Ports

This publication contains distances from one U.S. port to another U.S. port and from Great Lakes ports to Canadian ports on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River.

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Hydrographic Surveys - Specs. and Deliverables

This document provides the required technical specifications for hydrographic surveys undertaken either by NOAA field units or by organizations under contract to the Director, Coast Survey, National Ocean Service, NOAA, or the United States Department of Commerce.

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International Hydrographic Survey Standards

Written by Gerald B. Mills, this paper was published in the "International Hydrographic Review," LXXV(2), September 1998.

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Marine Transportation System General Presentation

In this presentation Captain Dave MacFarland offers many examples, explaining how every U.S. citizen relies on the Marine Transportation System for energy delivery, exports, transportation, cost-effective consumer goods, recreation, environmental protection and much more.

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Multibeam Sonar Data Acquisition System

This Technical Memorandum written by the Coast Survey Development Laboratory provides the conceptual framework of a multibeam sonar acquisition system from seafloor measurement to useable information.

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National Survey Plan - November 2000

This NOAA developed National Survey Plan addresses current trends in maritime navigation and supports NOAA's Promote Safe Navigation and interagency Marine Transportation System initiatives.

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Nautical Charting Plan

This NOAA developed Nautical Charting Plan addresses current trends in maritime navigation and supports NOAA's Promote Safe Navigation and interagency Marine Transportation System initiatives.

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Nautical Charts and DGPS
(Brochure)

With the advent of the Navstar Global Positioning System (GPS) and, in United States waters, the U.S. Coast Guard's Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS), mariners are now capable of navigating ships with much greater accuracy than previously possible.

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Nautical Chart User's Manual

This manual provides a wealth of technical information concerning the structure, layout and construction of a nautical chart. It covers basic topographic and hydrographic features, aids to navigation, chart symbols, miscellaneous other charting features and supplemental information. Researched and composed by Mr. L. Daniel Maxim with the cooperation of the Office of Coast Survey.

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New Technology for Shallow Water Hydrographic Surveys

Written by Andrew A. Armstrong, Lloyd C. Huff and Gerd F. Glang with additional excerpts from a paper by Gary C. Guenther, Thomas J. Eisler, Jack L. Riley and Steven W. Perez; published in the "International Hydrographic Review," LXXV(2), September 1998.

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NOAA Contractr Partnership:  How NOAA uses private industry to support nautical charting

Written by Samuel P. DeBow Jr., C.Brian Greenawalt and Jeffrey Ferguson, published in the "International Hydrographic Review," Volume No. 1 (New Series), July 2000.

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Safe Passage into the 21st Century
(Brochure)

A full-color brochure (reformatted for the web) describing the modernization of NOAA's navigational services. Read about real-time tide and current systems, differential global positioning systems, modern surveying technologies, sustainable coastal development and many more relevant topics necessary to promote safe navigation.

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Text only version

Shore and Sea Boundaries by Aaron L. Shalowitz

This three volume publication summarizes the technical and legal aspects of determining maritime boundaries in the U.S., particularly with respect to the use of data acquired by the Office of Coast Survey and its predecessors.

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