Coastal Services Center

Frequently Asked Questions

The Center Library's most frequently asked questions

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1. What is NOAA?
2. How do I locate someone in NOAA?
3. Where can I get NOAA publications?
4. May I use the resources at NOAA libraries?
5. Do you provide remote access to your catalog?
6. How can I obtain copies of NOAA's nautical charts?
7. How can I locate information from NOAA's tide tables?
8. What information is available to track hurricanes?
9. How can I contact the coastal zone management program for my state?
10. What is the National Sea Grant College Program, and where is the Sea Grant program for my state?
11. How can I obtain a copy of the entire text of the Coastal Zone Management Act?
12. I need some information on the Great Lakes. The NOAA Coastal Services Center Library is in South Carolina - can you help me?
13. I'd like some general information about the health of our nation's coasts.
14. I have a question about fish.
15. How can I obtain climatic data, such as daily temperatures or precipitation?
16. What is magnetic variation, and how can I find the magnetic variation for a particular point?
17. I need information on Hurricane Fran - when was it and what was the final damage in dollars? - and I need an image.
18. How can I obtain a current AVHRR image of the Gulf Stream?
19. Where can I obtain current marine advisories for my area?
20. Can you provide information for hurricane preparedness?

1. What is NOAA?
   Although you may not realize it, you come face to face with NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, every day. The NOAA Public Affairs Office provides an excellent overview of the six major divisions that make up NOAA and the work that each division performs.
2. How do I locate someone in NOAA?
   Access the NOAA Locator System at the NOAA Resource Development Center.
3. Where can I get NOAA publications?
   We regret that NOAA libraries no longer serve as distribution centers for these documents. Copies may be available for purchase from the following sources:
   
   • National Technical Information Service
   • National Geophysical Data Center
   • National Climatic Data Center
   • National Oceanographic Data Center
   • Superintendent of Documents - Government Printing Office
4. May I use the resources at the NOAA Coastal Services Center Library?
   The NOAA Coastal Services Center Library collection is available to scientists, researchers, students, and the general public for on-site use or through interlibrary loan. Services are provided by telephone, interoffice mail, FAX, U.S. mail, and e-mail.
   
   Note: A valid Department of Commerce Identification Card is required to borrow materials. Other users may borrow materials through the interlibrary loan department of their organization or public libraries.
5. Do you provide remote access to your catalog?
   Our library catalog is available on the World Wide Web. You may search TIDALS, the Coastal Services Center Library Catalog, as well as NOAALINC, the NOAA Library and Information Network Catalog. This catalog offers holdings from not only the NOAA Central Library in Silver Spring, Maryland, but also all other NOAA libraries and information centers, including the Coastal Services Center Library.
6. How can I obtain copies of NOAA's nautical charts?
   Copies of NOAA's nautical charts are available for a nominal fee from this office:
   
   

   FAA Distribution Division, AVN-530
   National Aeronautical Charting Office
   Riverdale, MD 20737-1199
   Telephone: (301) 436-8301
   Toll Free, U.S. only: (800) 638-8972
   Fax: (301) 436-6829
   E-mail: 9-AMC-charsales@faa.gov

   To speed processing of your orders, please provide complete product information—description, name, type, and number, including prefix, as well as your name, address, and telephone number. All orders must include payment in U.S. funds by check, money order, or credit card. Checks must be issued by a U.S. bank and made payable to NOAA. International customers may send an international money order. Visa and MasterCard are accepted. Prices include regular mailing charges from the U.S. Postal Service or ground service from United Parcel Service. Please allow 14 work days for delivery of individual orders within the U.S.

   Copies of NOAA nautical charts are also available from authorized sales agents, located in many U.S. ports and in some foreign ports. Obtain a complete list of authorized sales agents.

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7. How can I locate information from NOAA's tide tables?
   Tide tables and related information can be located in NOAA's serial publication, Coast Pilot. The United States Coast Pilot consists of a series of nautical books that cover a variety of information important to navigators of coastal and intracoastal waters and the Great Lakes. They contain supplemental information that is difficult to portray on a nautical chart. The topics in the Coast Pilot include channel descriptions, anchorages, bridge and cable clearances, currents, tide and water levels, prominent features, pilotage, towage, weather, ice conditions, wharf descriptions, dangers, routes, traffic separation schemes, small-craft facilities, and federal regulations applicable to navigation.
   
   
   • NOAA Tide Prediction provides scientifically sound data for the current two weeks.
   • Many local publishers and printers across the country publish regional and local tide and tidal current predictions in booklets, calendars, and other formats. The data printed in these local and regional publications are, in many cases, obtained directly from the National Ocean Service (NOS). For availability of localized prediction tables, consult marinas and marine supply stores in your area. Since there are literally hundreds of such publications, they cannot be listed here.
     As of this date, three publishing firms* are printing complete east and west coast tide and tidal current predictions for U.S. ports and coastal areas ProStar Publications, Thomas Reed Publications, and the International Marine Division of McGraw Hill. As additional companies advise the National Ocean Service of their publication of complete NOS tide and tidal current data for either east and/or west coast, they will be added to this listing.
     
     

     Pro Star Publications All Tables East Coast 3 Church Circle, Suite 109 Annapolis, Maryland 21401 (800) 481-6277		Reed's Nautical Almanacs East and West Coast Tides and Currents Thomas Reed Publications, Inc. 13A Lewis Street Boston, Massachusetts 02113 (800) 995-4995
     West Coast 8643 Hayden Place Colver City, California 90292 (310) 280-1010		International Marine All Tables P.O. Box 182607 Columbus, Ohio 43218-2607 (800) 822-8158

     
     * Please note that the listing of these three publishers is not an endorsement for any commercial products.
8. What information is available to track hurricanes?
   The National Hurricane Center provides information on current and past hurricanes. The National Hurricane Center's preliminary reports contain comprehensive information on each storm, including synoptic history, meteorological statistics, casualties and damages, and the post-analysis best track (six-hourly positions and intensities). This site also provides information on the deadliest, costliest, and most intense hurricanes of this century through 1992.
   
   Using NOAA data, the Weather Channel provides current and accurate information for tracking hurricanes. The Weather Channel home page provides information on storm tracking, sustained winds, strike probabilities, surge forecasts, and tropical storm and hurricane watches or warnings.
   
   Additional sites that may be of interest:
   
   Tropical Storms, Worldwide Tropical storm data that can be used to track current storms. Data is organized per region: Atlantic Ocean, NE Pacific Ocean, NW Pacific Ocean, SE Pacific Ocean, SW Pacific Ocean, N Indian Ocean, S Indian Ocean, and Worldwide. Historical data (1994 to present) are also available at this site.
   
   FEMA Tropical Storm and Hurricane Watch Information Provides an up-to-the-minute account of tropical storms and hurricanes, as well as information on hurricane preparedness. Also provides an archive of some recent hurricanes, including Hurricanes Roxanne, Opal, Marilyn, Luis, Humberto, Felix, and Erin.
9. Where is the coastal zone management program for my state?
   Information about the National Coastal Zone Management Program is available from NOAA's Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management.
   
   Short descriptions of state coastal programs are also available.
10. What is the National Sea Grant College Program, and where is the Sea Grant program for my state?
    There are currently 30 Sea Grant Programs. Visit the National Sea Grant College Program site for more information. View a hypertext map showing all 30 programs.
11. How can I obtain a copy of the full text of the Coastal Zone Management Act?
    Click here for a copy of the full text of the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972.
12. I need some information on the Great Lakes. The NOAA Coastal Services Center Library is in South Carolina—can you help me?
    Although we are located in South Carolina, our focus is on national coastal zone issues. The Coastal Services Center Library staff can provide assistance in locating information on a wide variety of topics of a technical or nontechnical nature. Natural hazards, coastal critters, coastal regulations and laws, and regional coastal information are some of the topics that are available in the NOAA Coastal Services Center Library.
    
    For information on the Great Lakes, you might find State of the Great Lakes 2001 of interest. The State of the Great Lakes 2001 was coproduced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Environment Canada.
13. I'd like some general information about the health of our nation's coasts.
    One source that might be of interest is State of the Coasts: A State-By-State Analysis of the Vital Link Between Healthy Coasts and a Healthy Economy. This document provides a thumbnail sketch of the coastal health of each coastal state. If you wish to obtain a copy, please contact Coast Alliance:
    
    

    Coast Alliance
    215 Pennsylvania Ave., SE
    Washington, DC 20003
    Telephone: (202) 546-9554

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14. I have a question about fish.
    The National Marine Fisheries Service NEFSC Headquarters home page has an excellent fish FAQ that may answer your question.
15. How can I obtain climatic data, such as daily temperatures or precipitation?
    An archive of climatic data—national and international—is available from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in Asheville, North Carolina. The Climatic Visualization, or CLIMVIS, allows users to view data from up to two stations and two parameters. The stations include international weather stations, as well as all weather stations in the United States. The parameters include minimum and maximum temperatures, precipitation or snowfall levels, humidity levels, total daily sunshine, and wind speed.
    
    For example, suppose you need to compare the daily maximum temperatures for Charleston, South Carolina and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for June 1995. After selecting the stations (Charleston International Airport and Greater Pittsburgh International Airport) and the parameter (daily maximum temperature), the data are provided in either a GIF image as a line graph or a PostScript file.
    
    For further information, please contact NCDC's Climate Services Branch directly:
    
    

    National Climatic Data Center
    151 Patton Avenue, Room 120
    ATTN: Climate Services Division
    Federal Building
    Asheville, NC 28801-5001
    Telephone: 704-271-4800
    Fax: 704-271-4876
    orders@ncdc.noaa.gov

16. What is magnetic variation, and how can I find the magnetic variation for a particular point?
    Check out the National Geophysical Data Center's (NGDC) Geomagnetic Field Synthesis Program (Version 3.0), or GEOMAG, to locate the magnetic variation for any given point. Simply provide the date(s), elevation if known, and location (latitude and longitude). You may need to consult a resource like the World Almanac to locate the location information—elevation, latitude and longitude are all provided. The GEOMAG model will compute the values of the Earth's magnetic field parameters. For additional information on magnetism, please refer to the Geomagnetic FAQs prepared by the NOAA National Geophysical Data Center's World Data Centre-A (WDC-A) for Solid Earth Geophysics in Boulder, Colorado.
17. I need information on Hurricane Fran—when was it and what was the final damage in dollars?—and I need an image.
    For statistical information on Fran and other major hurricanes in the 20th Century, you may wish to consult the Deadliest, Costliest, and Most Intense U.S. Hurricanes of This Century (through 1992), a publication from NOAA. The National Hurricane Center provides an archive of hurricane images from 1995 to the present. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Ocean Remote Sensing Group provides access to the track maps and Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometry (AVHRR) images of a number of hurricanes, including all from the 1995 and 1996 hurricane seasons, as well as selected earlier hurricanes.
    
    Side Note: According to NOAA's Preliminary Report on Hurricane Fran, August 23—September 8, 1996, Hurricane Fran hit the North Carolina coast as a category three hurricane on August 23, 1996, and caused extensive damage from the Carolinas to Pennsylvania. Again, citing the preliminary report, "The Property Claim Services Division of the American Insurance Services Group reports that Fran caused an estimated $1.6 billion dollars in insured property damage to the United States. This estimate includes $1.275 billion in North Carolina, $20 million in South Carolina, $175 million in Virginia, $50 million in Maryland, $20 million in West Virginia, $40 million in Pennsylvania and $20 million in Ohio. A conservative ratio between total damage and insured property damage, compared to past landfalling hurricanes, is two to one. Therefore, the total U.S. damage estimate is $3.2 billion." Obtain an AVHRR image of Hurricane Fran.
18. How can I obtain a current AVHRR image of the Gulf Stream?
    An AVHRR image of the Gulf Stream can be obtained from the Space Department of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, which provides access to NOAA satellite imagery.
19. Where can I obtain current marine advisories for my area?
    Up-to-the-minute marine observations are available from Interactive Marine Observations by the National Weather Service's office in Tallahassee, Florida. To locate data for your area, simply click on your location on the hypertext map, and then click on a buoy or CMAN station to get the current conditions. Marine forecasts are available for each site by clicking on Latest Marine Forecasts.
20. Can you provide information on hurricane preparedness?
    FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, provides a wealth of information to help you prepare for hurricanes. Through FEMA you can get preparedness and mitigation information to help protect your family and home from hurricane damage. You can learn how to secure your roof, reinforce your garage doors, board up windows, and install cross-bracing, and you can receive other practical advice. The materials are available for free by contacting FEMA:
    
    

    FEMA
    PO Box 70247
    Washington, DC 20024
    Telephone: (800) 480-2520

    FEMA also provides a fax-on-demand service. For a list of documents that are available by fax, please call (202) 646-FEMA. After making your document selections, you will be prompted for your fax number. Within an hour, you will receive your requested materials by fax.

    FEMA's special Tropical Storm Watch page is available on the FEMA Web site. In addition to providing preparedness information, this site provides bilingual advisories, new reports, hurricane trackings, tips on how to fill out a flood insurance claim, and other helpful information.

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