Our Web Mapping Services (WMS) provides raster data to GIS clients. SDMI-GINA provides a variety of interfaces to the WMS and are always interested to explore expanding the options for access data in the WMS services. "Let us know":/contact if you would like a new tiling scheme, or alternative interface to any of our WMS feeds. SDMI-GINA might be able to assist in making your own WMS feeds available or perhaps your own WMS feed. Examples of the data available in the WMS can be found in our "Data Gallery.":http://dev.sdmi-cms.gina.alaska.edu/data/data-gallery/#web-mapping-services The WMS URLs: * *BDL* ** http://wms.alaskamapped.org/bdl? * *BDL Extras* ** http://wms.alaskamapped.org/extras? * *NOAA Nautical Charts* ** http://wms.alaskamapped.org/charts? ** http://wms.alaskamapped.org/charts_nc? (includes collar information) For more convenient loading, see these "ESRI layer files.":http://dev.sdmi-cms.gina.alaska.edu/data/arcgis-layer-files/ You can use the layer files above for ESRI ArcMap or you can manually add the WMS URLs. We suggest the use of "layer files;":http://dev.sdmi-cms.gina.alaska.edu/data/arcgis-layer-files/ for manual loading of the WMS see our guide: Using the SDMI OGC Web Services in ESRI ArcGIS (pdf). For more information about Web Mapping Services (WMS), the "Wikipedia has a excellent overview":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Map_Service. A more detailed overview and the specifications for the WMS service is available from the "OGC’s website":http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/wms. Please let us know if you have any problems or questions! "Forum posts":http://forum.gina.alaska.edu/forums/1 are appreciated and will help us to share solutions. Alternatively, please email us at "[email protected]":mailto:[email protected], if you prefer. h2. Helpful Hints/Notes about WMS usage: # If you can, set the image type of your WMS client uses to request JPEGs rather than PNGs. JPEGs are smaller so they will take less time in transit and will thus load faster. # If you are unable to change the image format to JPEG, then consider using our JPEG only service. The URLs for these services are http://wms.alaskamapped.org/jpeg/bdl for the Best Data Available layer and http://wms.alaskamapped.org/jpeg/extras for our Extras service. # If you are intending to use one of the WMS to print to a large format medium, consider using the "online mapviewer":http://beta.alaskamapped.org/#browse to make an extract of your area of interest and using that instead of the WMS - this will be faster and more effective.