Navigation & Shipping

  • PORTS station information that automatically references currently accepted tidal datums will be updated with new datums. These new datums will be made available on the:
    • PORTS® station information webpage
    • CO-OPS Tides & Currents water level webpages & data services
    • Forecast System (OFS)
    • Published bench mark sheets
  • Automatically disseminated data products that are provided to the National Weather Service will reference the updated datums like Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW)
  • Navigation charts maintained by NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey (OCS) will not be significantly modified as a result of NTDE update. However, in regions that have recently experienced rapid land movement, changes may be required on the next regularly scheduled chart edition. Although depictions of the datum changes will not be evident on large-scale NOS nautical charts, changes will be noticeable when establishing or re-occupying tide stations and in the numerical relationships for tidal bench marks provided by CO-OPS. These updated tidal datum relationships will be made available to the public in the form of published tidal bench mark sheets and accepted datums.
  • Real-time water-level data and predictions will be updated to reference the NTDE. CO-OPS will aim to release the new Epoch at the same time that NOAA's National Geodetic Survey releases the new geodetic datum. This will facilitate better integration of these datums in the future, including use of the NOAA VDatum tool to identify tidal geodetic relationships where there is not a sufficient tie at a water level station.

Updated Tidal Datums and water-level products that reference the updated datums will all be made accessible on the CO-OPS website as well as GIS and web services data access tools.