---
name: noaa-electronic-navigational-charts-ingestion
description: "How to get NOAA Electronic Navigational Charts (ENC) data into a pandas DataFrame and Parquet: access, the request, the format, limits, quirks and terms."
---

# Confirm NOAA ENC overview and User Agreement reachability

Source entry: https://signal-lab-jet.vercel.app/datasets/noaa-electronic-navigational-charts
Provider: https://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/charts/noaa-enc.html
Checked against the provider's documentation: 2026-11-05

## Access
- No key. Download individual or regional ENC cells from Coast Survey pages after accepting the User Agreement where prompted.

## Request
```bash
curl -I 'https://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/charts/noaa-enc.html'
```

## Format
HTML ENC product overview; User Agreement HTML; ENC download index.

## Load into pandas and Parquet
Needs Python 3 with requests, pandas and pyarrow.
```python
"""NOAA ENC page probe -> pandas -> Parquet."""
import pandas as pd
import requests

UA = {"User-Agent": "SignalLabCheck/1.0"}
rows = []
for url in [
    "https://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/charts/noaa-enc.html",
    "https://charts.noaa.gov/ENCs/ENC_Agreement.shtml",
    "https://charts.noaa.gov/ENCs/ENCs.shtml",
]:
    r = requests.get(url, headers=UA, timeout=60, allow_redirects=True)
    rows.append({"url": url, "status": r.status_code, "bytes": len(r.content), "final_url": r.url})
df = pd.DataFrame(rows)
df.to_parquet("noaa_enc_pages.parquet", index=False)
print(df)

```
Run by us on 2026-11-05 (python 3 | pandas | pyarrow | requests). Result: ENC overview, User Agreement and ENC download pages returned HTTP 200 on 2026-11-05; overview states Coast Survey ENCs are free.

## Limits
- Not stated numeric rate limit.
- Full national ENC set is large; this skill only probes documentation pages.

## Quirks
- Weekly Notice to Mariners updates; the User Agreement notes that timing of their availability is not assured.
- Redistributed ENCs are not official for federal carriage unless via a certified distributor.

## Terms and attribution
- User Agreement permits download, use and redistribution without payment to NOAA, with the official-product caveats stated there.
- Terms page: https://charts.noaa.gov/ENCs/ENC_Agreement.shtml

## Sources
- https://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/charts/noaa-enc.html: "NOAA ENCs downloaded directly from these Coast Survey websites are free."
- https://charts.noaa.gov/ENCs/ENC_Agreement.shtml: "You may download, use, and redistribute them without restriction, and without payment to NOAA, except as noted herein."

## Help improve this skill
Missing a source, or see something to improve? Call the MCP tool suggest_source or feedback (or POST /api/suggest or /api/feedback). Reviewed ideas: https://signal-lab-jet.vercel.app/agent-suggestions

Information for educational purposes only. Free tiers, limits and licenses belong to the providers and may change; check the provider's own terms before using the data.