(Originally posted in the summer of 2007) EarthNC has come a long way since December. For one thing there is now an official Web site. And a few weeks ago the company introducedEarthNC Plus, a $50 CD package that can overlay all available ENCs on Google Earth. I’ve been testing it, and will write more about it soon. But today let’s look at EarthNC Online, the just introduced free viewer. You have to install a plug-in from GoogleEarthAirlines which lets you access G.E. from inside your browser. Sounds a little dicey, but it all worked fine for me (using Firefox 2.0).

Now’s the time to pop up the large version of the screen above. You’ll see that I’ve turned on the Metar WX overlay (all those clickable weather reports on shore), National Radar (which didn’t show me any radar, a glitch I guess, but did put up flood warning areas around New York City), and finally Ship WX (VOS), which shows some 24 hours of vessel reports (use the timeline upper right). Then I zoomed into World Headquarters, where I activated the Marine Chart, US Tide, and Bathymetry overlays. The latter, like the VOS reports, is data I’ve never been able to access so easily before. Clicking on nav aids brought up their characteristics, by the way, and that little circular tide icon below Curtis Island yielded three days of predictions. All pretty darn nifty, and EarthNC says that user-entered POIs and route building are coming soon.

EarthNC Release Latest Version of Nautical Charts for Google Earth

Florida based, EarthNC Inc (http://earthnc.com) announced today the general availability of the latest version of EarthNC Plus – Marine Charts for Google Earth. EarthNC Plus now includes the full compliment of current US NOAA Electronic Navigation Charts (ENC) and most Army Corps of Engineerings Inland Electronic Navigation Charts (IENC) in a native Google Earth format.

Delray Beach, FL (PRWEB) November 2, 2007 — Florida based, EarthNC Inc (http://earthnc.com) announced today the general availability of the latest version of EarthNC Plus — Marine Charts for Google Earth. EarthNC Plus now includes the full compliment of current US NOAA Electronic Navigation Charts (ENC) and most Army Corps of Engineerings Inland Electronic Navigation Charts (IENC) in a native Google Earth format. EarthNC Plus is available in CD-ROM and direct download formats for Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X. Each EarthNC Plus purchase includes a full chart set (currently over 680 charts) and a 12-month chart update subscription for an introductory price of $49.95.

By combining vector chart data with Google Earth’s detailed satellite imagery and 3D terrain, EarthNC Plus users are provided an unprecedented 3D view of both the water and the land. EarthNC Plus charts contain up to 185 unique layers per chart, have a built-in declutter mode based on the zoom settings, and allow users to override default layer visibility settings. Each layer is built using a custom marine icon set specially designed for EarthNC and individual layer elements (such as lights or buoys) have 1-click access to additional information. Besides the inclusion of official navigation chart data, EarthNC also provides growing set of value-added nautical information including marine forecasts, tides, weather, marinas, ramps, towing, and user-generated point-of-interest layers.

Designed for use both on and off the water, EarthNC Plus charts are built to work in online and offline modes depending on internet availability. During online use, EarthNC Plus can be used explore new boating areas, view real-time weather and tide information, and plan trips. Offline, EarthNC Plus can be combined with various 3rd party solutions for real-time GPS support in Google Earth to turn Google Earth into a 3D color chart plotter. For those with smaller boats, EarthNC will be releasing an online routing tool for Google Earth which can transfer waypoints, routes, and tracks directly to most Garmin handheld GPS units or provide a GPX format route file for use with other GPS devices.

As an additional service, EarthNC provides limited versions of their Approach, Harbor, and Inland charts and well as many of their special marine layers for free as part of EarthNC Online at http://earthnc.com/online.

For additional information:
Please visit our website at http://earthnc.com or contact