The Office of Coast Survey provides Web Mapping Services as an additional way to view our geospatial data.

The Open Geospatial Consortium Web Map Service (WMS) protocol defines a simple interface for web based mapping applications. The WMS protocol is based on a simple query syntax for posting a request for the desired layers and region to the server, which returns a map as a standard image (GIF, PNG or other format). The capabilities of a WMS are described in an XML (Extensible Markup Language) document, known as the capabilities file.

Below is a listing of the base URLs for the Office of Coast Survey's current WMS services. Currently, WMS services are provided for data from nowCOAST and ENC Direct.

(To link to the capabilities XML file, append “SERVICE=WMS&VERSION=1.1.1&REQUEST=GetCapabilities&” to each of the following URLs)

Service: ‘encdirect’, URL:
http://ocs-spatial.ncd.noaa.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/encdirect?

Service: ‘encdirect_approach’, URL:
http://ocs-spatial.ncd.noaa.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/encdirect_approach?

Service: ‘encdirect_coastal’, URL:
http://ocs-spatial.ncd.noaa.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/encdirect_coastal?

Service: ‘encdirect_general’, URL:
http://ocs-spatial.ncd.noaa.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/encdirect_general?

Service: ‘encdirect_overview’,, URL:
http://ocs-spatial.ncd.noaa.gov/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/encdirect_overview?

nowCOAST provides WMS access to its map layers through six services,
grouped by data type as follows:

Service 'obs' - Near Real-Time Observations:
http://nowcoast.noaa.gov/wms/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/obs?

Service 'wwa' - Watches, Warnings and Advisories:
http://nowcoast.noaa.gov/wms/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/wwa?

Service 'analyses' - Gridded Weather & Oceanographic Surface Analyses:
http://nowcoast.noaa.gov/wms/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/analyses?

Service 'forecasts' - Gridded Surface Forecasts:
http://nowcoast.noaa.gov/wms/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/forecasts?

Service 'guidance' - Forecast Model Guidance:
http://nowcoast.noaa.gov/wms/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/guidance?

Service 'geolinks' - Geo-Referenced Hyperlinks:
http://nowcoast.noaa.gov/wms/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/geolinks?

For more information about nowCOAST's available map services, see:
http://nowcoast.noaa.gov/help/mapservices.shtml