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NOAA completes hydrographic surveys following Hurricane Barry

Lt. j.g. Patrick Lawler and Lt. j.g. Michelle Levano remove the side scan sonar from the water.

By Lt. j.g. Michelle Levano

Seven tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean have been named Barry, with the first storm making landfall in 1983. In 2019, Hurricane Barry reached Category 1 status on July 13, becoming the first hurricane of the 2019 season. 

On July 11, Office of Coast Survey’s Gulf Coast Navigation Manager, Tim Osborn, received requests from U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and local ports for resources to confirm navigational depths in Louisiana waters. Once a navigation manager receives requests for hydrographic surveys, Coast Survey formulates logistics to complete these requests. In the case of Hurricane Barry, Coast Survey’s navigation response team (NRT)- Stennis mobilized to respond to Port Fourchon, Louisiana’s southernmost port. Port Fourchon supports significant petroleum industry traffic coming in from the Gulf of Mexico, furnishing about 18% of the U.S. oil supply. 

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A dynamic river calls for dynamic collaborations

Lt. j.g. Shelley Devereaux monitors survey collection near Price Island on the Columbia River.

By Lt. j.g. Michelle Levano, Officer in Charge, Navigation Response Team-Seattle

Navigation response team (NRT)-Seattle continued hydrographic survey work on one of the West’s most relentless rivers, the Columbia. The Columbia River is the lifeblood of the regional economy, expanding far beyond the natural divide it provides between the states of Oregon and Washington.

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Register for NOAA Nav-cast webinar – S-100 for System Implementers

NOAA Nav-cast announcement for S-100 System Implementers presentation

Join us for our first NOAA Nav-cast, a quarterly webinar series that highlights the tools and trends of NOAA navigation services.

S-100 for System Implementers
Learn about the S-100 Universal Hydrographic Data Model and what navigation system developers need to know in order to implement various S-100 based product specifications. Also, gain insight into NOAA’s work in the S-100 product development space for S-111 surface currents. 

Date and time: Tuesday, June 18, 2019 at 11 a.m. (EDT)
How to register: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7354579801420345345

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Centennial anniversary of aerial surveying and mapping

By Kevin Mackenzie

A year after Coast and Geodetic Survey (C&GS) Director Ernest Lester Jones returned from World War I, he took the Survey’s mission to the sky. From his time in war, Jones understood the advantages that airplane photography had for locating military features of the enemy. In his 1919 annual report to Commerce Secretary William C. Redfield, he noted, “The same principle employed in the military work can be used in surveying and mapping.” The following months would produce a series of tests and research in cooperation with the Air Services of the Army and Navy.

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NOAA encourages all mariners to use NOAA ENC® for latest updates and other advantages

ECDIS display on the bridge of a tanker ship.

NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey maintains a suite of over 1,000 NOAA electronic navigational charts (ENC) and paper nautical charts, and like many other chart producing nations, maintains an ENC focused production process called “ENC-first.” That is, ENCs are the “first” or primary nautical product, and new data is compiled onto ENCs before all other products.

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U.S. Coast Pilot® now contains Navigation Rules

NOAA recently announced that all nine United States Coast Pilot®  volumes now contain the U.S. Coast Guard International Regulations for the Prevention of Collisions at Sea (72 COLREGS) and the Inland Navigation Rules — commonly known as the “Rules of the Road.” The navigation rules are similar to rules on the highway as they present a consistent way to navigate safely and avoid collisions. Having the newly published Coast Pilot now fulfills the legal requirement for mariners to maintain a copy of these regulations on board.

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NOAA Improves Etolin Strait Data with New NOAA ENC® Layout

Etolin Strait survey area and reschemed grid

NOAA recently released 13 new large-scale electronic navigational charts (NOAA ENC®) of Etolin Strait, Alaska. These charts provide a nearly twenty-fold increase in scale over the previous ENC coverage. New Etolin Strait hydrographic surveys and the resulting ENCs served as a pilot project for the overall rescheming of the entire NOAA ENC suite with a regular, gridded layout for ENC charts, as outlined in NOAA’s National Charting Plan. No corresponding NOAA raster nautical chart products in Etolin Strait will be produced. This is in keeping with Coast Survey’s “ENC-only” production concept, which generally maintains the current raster chart product coverage, but only creates new larger scale coverage in the ENC product line.

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nowCOAST® offers new Gulf of Maine, Chesapeake Bay forecast services

Depiction of NOS Vv probability of occurrence forecast guidance for Chesapeake Bay on nowCOAST map viewer.

NOAA’s nowCOAST®, a GIS-based online web mapping service that provides frequently updated weather and ocean observations, analyses, imagery, and ocean model forecast guidance, along with weather watches and warnings and forecasts, now provides maps of oceanographic forecast guidance from the National Ocean Service (NOS) 3-D operational forecast modeling system for the Gulf of Maine (GoMOFS) and NOS forecast guidance of the marine pathogen, Vibrio Vulnificus (Vv), for the Chesapeake Bay via two new map services and map viewer. Continue reading “nowCOAST® offers new Gulf of Maine, Chesapeake Bay forecast services”

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NOAA supports Coast Guard and Marine Corps resume training following Hurricane Florence

LTJG Debroisse and BMC Rootz

By, Lt. j.g. Patrick Debroisse

Hurricane Florence came ashore along the North Carolina coast on September 14, 2018, bringing Category 1 force winds and substantial amounts of rain and storm surge. One of the areas affected by the storm was the United States Marine Corps’ Camp Lejeune, which suffered infrastructure and waterway damage. Camp Lejeune is home to the Second Marine Division, multiple training commands, and the U.S. Coast Guard’s Special Missions Training Center (SMTC). The Coast Guard uses the waters around the camp for small boat tactics training. Continue reading “NOAA supports Coast Guard and Marine Corps resume training following Hurricane Florence”