Raster Chart Updating Service News

Smooth Sailing

The entire suite of 1,000 official NOAA nautical charts has been available in digital raster form since 1995. These high quality, full color, geo-referenced images of NOAA's paper charts are made for use in computer-based navigation systems and work with GPS or other electronic positioning systems. They are produced jointly by NOAA and Maptech, Inc. under a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA). Mariners quickly adopted raster nautical charts. Their rapid adoption was aided by first-rate navigation software available from many companies at an affordable price. Today, the raster charts outsell NOAA's paper charts by eight to five.