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November 1, 2001 — NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center has been cooperatively distributing National Ocean Service bathymetric, bathymetric/fishing, regional, geophysical and preliminary maps. The office provides an on-line graphic selection page, which defines each of the maps available, complete with supplementary information on prices, date of publication, format and scale.

The NOS maps listed below are now also available as scanned images on a series of CD-ROMs for the following U.S. regions:

• CD-ROM 1 U.S. East Coast, Maine to Georgia
• CD-ROM 2 U.S. East & Eastern Gulf Coast, Florida & Alabama
• CD-ROM 3 U.S. Western Gulf Coast, Mississippi, Louisiana, & Texas
• CD-ROM 4 U.S. West Coast, California & Hawaii
• CD-ROM 5 U.S. West Coast, Washington & Oregon
• CD-ROM 6 Alaska 1, Gulf of Alaska & Aleutians South of 58 degrees
• CD-ROM 7 Alaska 2, Alaska & Bering Sea North of 58 degrees

The images are topographic maps of the sea floor. Through detailed depth contours the size, shape and distribution of underwater features are portrayed. Fishing maps are produced at a scale of 1:100,000 and contain Loran-C rates, distribution and identification of bottom sediment types, and known bottom obstructions (in addition to the basic information found on standard bathymetric maps).

Preliminary maps (part of the collection which were never published and are only available as black & white images) are stored in CCITT (Consultative Committee for International Telephone and Telegraph) Group 4 TIFF (Tag Image File Format) format, commonly used for Fax transmission. All color maps have been compressed using MrSID. Decompression software (a MrSID Viewer) for these files is included on the CD-ROM is also available free from the following site.

Relevant Web Sites
The National Geophysical Data Center

NOAA' National Ocean Service

National Ocean Service Bathymetric & Fishing Maps as Scanned Images

Media Contact:
Patricia Viets, NOAA Satellite Service, (301) 457-5005