Electronic Navigational Charts(ENC)

NOAA is developing a suite of electronic navigational charts in vector format.  The ENC database is compiled from very large scale original source information whenever possible to increase the accuracy and provide more detail.  By digitizing the original large scale sources, rather than digitizing the paper nautical charts, the errors introduced by going from source to paper chart are eliminated.  The mariner will be able to query the database to determine attributes of the data such as scale, date collected, etc., as a guide to relative accuracy.  The ENC's will initially provide coverage of the largest commercial port areas of the United States.