The NOAA National Ocean Service hydrographic surveys run between 1930 and 1965 have been digitized from the paper smooth sheets. The surveys since 1965 have been collected, processed, and stored in digital form. The new multibeam systems have been used since 1984 to cover over 100,000 square nautical miles of the Exclusive Economic Zone with overlapping swaths of digital soundings. Each of these multibeam surveys may contain millions of soundings. None of the above data has been assigned quality control tags by NOS, but they are stored by survey number, with indexes showing what younger data are available to supersede older data in any area. Large digital databases, such as the Master Seaftoor Digital Database, are planned in connection with the Defense Hydrographic Initiative. It will be necessary to assign quality control ratings to the soundings in the databases. The detailed survey data may be indexed in the master database but maintained in distributed databases. The databases could supply historical sounding data in digital form for the planning, collection, processing, and evaluation of new survey data. During the compilation of some bathymetric maps and nautical charts, it is necessary to junction and combine the newer multibeam surveys having total bottom coverage, with the more widely spaced historical data. Precedence is given to the newer hydrographic data, with some older data being removed as needed in order to provide a smooth transition between data sets. In applying multibeam data to nautical charts, it is necessary that actual soundings be positioned properly with respect to bottom contours, which may have been drawn using gridded values. The junctioning of historical and newer data sets is expected to be aided by the use of interactive cartographic workstations.
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