15 CFR § 996.2 - Definitions.

---
identifier: "/us/cfr/t15/s996.2"
source: "ecfr"
legal_status: "authoritative_unofficial"
title: "15 CFR § 996.2 - Definitions."
title_number: 15
title_name: "Commerce and Foreign Trade"
section_number: "996.2"
section_name: "Definitions."
chapter_name: "NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE"
subchapter_number: "F"
subchapter_name: "QUALITY ASSURANCE AND CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS FOR NOAA HYDROGRAPHIC PRODUCTS AND SERVICES"
part_number: "996"
part_name: "QUALITY ASSURANCE AND CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS FOR NOAA HYDROGRAPHIC PRODUCTS AND SERVICES"
positive_law: false
currency: "2026-04-05"
last_updated: "2026-04-05"
format_version: "1.1.0"
generator: "[email protected]"
authority: "33 U.S.C. 892b."
regulatory_source: "70 FR 698, Jan. 5, 2005, unless otherwise noted."
cfr_part: "996"
---


# 996.2 Definitions.

*Agency* means the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

*Applicant* means a non-Federal entity that is submitting a hydrographic product to the Quality Assurance Program for certification.

*Certification* means a determination made by NOAA that a hydrographic product submitted by a non-Federal entity has met the requirements established by NOAA for a particular hydrographic product or class.

*Department* means the Department of Commerce.

*Hydrographic data* means information acquired through hydrographic or bathymetric surveying, photogrammetry, geodetic, geospatial, or geomagnetic measurements, tide and current observations, or other methods, that is used in providing hydrographic services.

*Hydrographic product* means any publicly or commercially available product produced by a non-Federal entity that includes or displays hydrographic data.

*Hydrographic product class* means a group of hydrographic products with similar traits, attributes, purposes, or users.

*Hydrographic services* means

(1) The management, maintenance, interpretation, certification, and dissemination of bathymetric, hydrographic, geodetic, geospatial, geomagnetic, and tide and current information, including the production of nautical charts, nautical information databases, and other products derived from hydrographic data;

(2) The development of nautical information systems; and

(3) Related activities.

*Quality Assurance Program* means a set of procedures by which hydrographic products are proposed for certification; by which standards and compliance tests are developed, and, if suitable, are adopted by NOAA for those products; and by which certification of individual products may be awarded or denied.

*Quality Assurance Program implementation* means the execution of the Quality Assurance Program procedures for specific hydrographic products.

*Sponsor* means a non-Federal entity that is submitting a hydrographic product to the Quality Assurance Program for the development of standards and compliance tests.