The Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services manages the National Water Level Observation Network (NWLON). NWLON provides basic water-level information to determine U.S. coastal marine boundaries and to create nautical charts. It also supports climate monitoring activities, tsunami and storm surge warning systems, coastal processes, and tectonic research. This NWLON station supports the Sabine-Neches, Texas, Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System.

The Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services manages the National Water Level Observation Network (NWLON). NWLON provides basic water-level information to determine U.S. coastal marine boundaries and to create nautical charts. On September 9, 2011, a new water level station on Lake Michigan in Holland, Michigan, was declared officially operational. The new station, a replacement for an older structure, was a joint upgrade effort by NOAA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District office. The new station is expected to provide modernized and highly-reliable water level data to the Great Lakes community for the next 50+ years.

Aquarius Reef Base, the world's only undersea research station, is located within Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Aquarius is home to scientists for missions up to 10 days long and is made to withstand the pressure of ocean depths to 120 feet deep.

The Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System, or 'PORTS,' operates in 20 ports around the country, including along the lower Mississippi. PORTS provides up-to-the-minute information on tides, currents, salinity, water and air temperature, atmospheric pressure, and wind (speed, gusts, and direction). This information helps mariners time the movement of their vessels -- from the smallest recreational craft to the most massive oil tankers -- through more than 50 U.S. seaports and waterways. Port authorities, local officials, and marine pilot associations also use PORTS to determine if a waterway is open and safe for navigation.

There are nearly 3,500,000 square nautical miles of our nation's waters to monitor, understand, and chart. The Office of Coast Survey evaluates the 500,000 square natuical miles that are navigationally significant. Then, each spring, hydrographic field parties set out in vessels to survey sections of the 43,000 square nautical miles deemed to be critical by the Coast Survey's evaluation. Sometimes teams break loose from normal surveying to respond to disasters such as hurricanes.

NOAA Ship Bay Hydro docked next to a NOAA tide station in Baltimore, Md.

NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson, one of the most technologically advanced hydrographic survey vessels in the world, departed its Norfolk, Virginia, homeport on April 6, 2010, to conduct a five-month long effort to map the seafloor and look for hazards to navigation off the Gulf coast.

Tools such as Side Scan Sonars are helping NOS understand our marine environment.

Seven current meter platforms arrive by truck for the Miami Current Survey Project. The project originated in 2007 after requests for up-to-date current information were received from multiple navigational community and marine resource users. The current survey project supports navigation and the operation of deep draft vessels in the area and additionally benefits various state and federal agencies.

NOAA's National Geodetic Survey and Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services are collaborating with the National Estuarine Research Reserve System to establish and monitor coastal land elevations in relation to local sea level throughout the reserve system. This marker from the Chesapeake Bay Reserve in Virginia is part of the required spatial framework needed to establish the reserves as 'sentinel' sites for measuring and monitoring the impacts of climate change on estuarine systems. The inscription reads: 'National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; National Estuarine Research Reserve System; National Geodetic Survey.'

NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson in New York Harbor. The Thomas Jefferson is one of a fleet of research and survey vessels used by NOAA to improve our understanding of the marine environment. The ship is home ported in Norfolk, Virginia, and primarily operates along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The primary mission of the Thomas Jefferson is to conduct hydrographic surveys for updating NOAA's nautical charts.

NOAA Ship Fairweather in Kachemak Bay, Alaska. The Fairweather is designed and outfitted primarily for conducting hydrographic surveys in support of nautical charting, but the ship is capable of many other missions in support of NOAA programs. The Fairweather is equipped with the latest in hydrographic survey technology — multi-beam survey systems; high-speed, high-resolution side-scan sonar; position and orientation systems; hydrographic survey launches; and an on-board data-processing server. The Fairweather is named for Mt. Fairweather in southeast Alaska, which is the highest peak in the Fairweather Range -- the tallest coastal range on Earth.

NOAA's National Geodetic Survey employees level to a pier as part of a larger island-wide project to provide St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands with a vertical datum.

Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services National Current Observation Program conducted several major surveys of tidal currents in response to user requests. Data has been collected in southeast Alaska since 2001 to help update tidal current predictions critical to safe navigation and other applications that are published annually in the U.S. Tidal Current Tables. Here, scientists deploy current meter buoys and anchors used for the surveys.

A Global Positioning System setup on a benchmark on the top of the NOAA Sentinel at Shell Beach, Louisiana. NOAA Sentinels are water-level observing stations which have been strengthened to deliver real-time storm tide data during severe coastal events. Built to withstand category four hurricanes, these structures maintain an incredible presence, given their size and stature, along the Gulf coast.