Nearshore areas within Long Island Sound are of great interest to the Connecticut and New York research and management communities because of their ecological, recreational, and commercial importance. However, although advances in multibeam echosounder technology permit the construction of detailed digital terrain models of seafloor topography within deeper waters, limitations inherent with collecting multibeam data make using this technology in shallower waters (<10-m deep) more difficult and expensive. These limitations have often resulted in gaps of no data between multibeam bathymetric datasets and the adjacent shoreline. To address this problem, complete-coverage multibeam bathymetry acquired offshore of New London and Niantic Bay, Connecticut, has been integrated with hydrographic LIDAR acquired along the nearshore. The result is a more continuous seafloor perspective and a much smaller gap between the digital bathymetric data and the shoreline. These datasets are provided as ESRI grid and GeoTIFF formats in order to facilitate access, compatibility, and utility.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP), is producing detailed geologic maps of the coastal sea floor. Bathymetry and sidescan-sonar imagery, originally collected by NOAA for charting purposes, provide a fundamental framework for research and management activities in Long Island Sound, shows the composition and terrain of the seabed, and provides information on sediment transport and benthic habitat. During April-May 2009 NOAA completed hydrographic survey H12013 offshore of the entrance to the Connecticut River, and during November 2009 and April 2010 bottom photographs and surficial sediment data were acquired as part of two ground-truth reconnaissance surveys of this area. Two interpretive data layers were derived from the multibeam echo-sounder and the ground-truth data used to verify them. For more information on the ground-truth surveys see: http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/operations/ia/public_ds_info.php?fa=2009-059-FA and http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/operations/ia/public_ds_info.php?fa=2010-010-FA

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, has produced detailed geologic maps of the sea floor in Long Island Sound, a major East Coast estuary surrounded by the most densely populated region of the United States. These studies have built upon cooperative research with the State of Connecticut that was initiated in 1982. The current phase of this research program is directed toward studies of sea-floor sediment distribution, processes that control sediment distribution, nearshore environmental concerns, and the relation of benthic community structures to the sea-floor geology. The bathymetry data in this data set were collected during 2001 for charting applications as part of NOAA project OPR-B340-RU, survey H11044 aboard the NOAA Ship RUDE. The RUDE, which supports NOAA's east-coast nautical charting mission, is outfitted to acquire single-beam bathymetry with an Odom Echotrac DF-3200 duel frequency echosounder and shallow water multibeam bathymetry with a Reson 8125 system. The Reson multibeam system operates at 455 KHz with a 120 degree across track swath and 240 beams along its swath.

Nearshore areas within Long Island Sound are of great interest to the Connecticut and New York research and management communities because of their ecological, recreational, and commercial importance. However, although advances in multibeam echosounder technology permit the construction of detailed digital terrain models of seafloor topography within deeper waters, limitations inherent with collecting multibeam data make using this technology in shallower waters (<10-m deep) more difficult and expensive. These limitations have often resulted in gaps of no data between multibeam bathymetric datasets and the adjacent shoreline. To address this problem, complete-coverage multibeam bathymetry acquired offshore of New London and Niantic Bay, Connecticut, has been integrated with hydrographic LIDAR acquired along the nearshore. The result is a more continuous seafloor perspective and a much smaller gap between the digital bathymetric data and the shoreline. These datasets are provided as ESRI grid and GeoTIFF formats in order to facilitate access, compatibility, and utility.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is producing detailed geologic maps of the coastal sea floor. Bathymetry, originally collected by NOAA for charting purposes, provides a fundamental framework for research and management activities along this part of Rhode Island Sound, shows the composition and terrain of the seabed, and provides information on sediment transport and benthic habitat. Interpretations were derived from the multibeam echo-sounder data collected in Rhode Island Sound. During July 2010, bottom photographs and surficial sediment data were acquired as part of a ground-truth reconnaissance survey of these areas. For more information on the ground-truth survey see .

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP), is producing detailed geologic maps of the coastal sea floor. Bathymetry and sidescan-sonar imagery, originally collected by NOAA for charting purposes, provide a fundamental framework for research and management activities in Long Island Sound, shows the composition and terrain of the seabed, and provides information on sediment transport and benthic habitat. During April-May 2009 NOAA completed hydrographic survey H12013 offshore of the entrance to the Connecticut River, and during November 2009 and April 2010 bottom photographs and surficial sediment data were acquired as part of two ground-truth reconnaissance surveys of this area. Two interpretive data layers were derived from the multibeam echo-sounder and the ground-truth data used to verify them. For more information on the ground-truth surveys see: http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/operations/ia/public_ds_info.php?fa=2009-059-FA and http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/operations/ia/public_ds_info.php?fa=2010-010-FA

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP), is producing detailed geologic maps of the coastal sea floor. Bathymetry and sidescan-sonar imagery, originally collected by NOAA for charting purposes, provide a fundamental framework for research and management activities in Long Island Sound, shows the composition and terrain of the seabed, and provides information on sediment transport and benthic habitat. During April-May 2009 NOAA completed hydrographic survey H12013 offshore of the entrance to the Connecticut River, and during November 2009 and April 2010 bottom photographs and surficial sediment data were acquired as part of two ground-truth reconnaissance surveys of this area. Two interpretive data layers were derived from the multibeam echo-sounder and the ground-truth data used to verify them. For more information on the ground-truth surveys see: http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/operations/ia/public_ds_info.php?fa=2009-059-FA and http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/operations/ia/public_ds_info.php?fa=2010-010-FA

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is producing detailed geologic maps of the coastal sea floor. Bathymetric and sidescan-sonar data, originally collected by NOAA for charting purposes, provide a framework for research and management activities along western Block Island Sound, show the composition and terrain of the seabed, and provide information on sediment transport and benthic habitat. During June 2013, bottom photographs and surficial sediment data were acquired as part of a ground-truth reconnaissance survey of this area. Interpretations were derived from the multibeam-echosounder, sidescan-sonar, sedimentary, and photographic data collected in Block Island Sound. For more information on the ground-truth survey see https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2013-005-FA.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is producing detailed geologic maps of the coastal sea floor. Bathymetric and sidescan-sonar data, originally collected by NOAA for charting purposes, provide a fundamental framework for research and management activities along this part of Block Island Sound, show the composition and terrain of the seabed, and provide information on sediment transport and benthic habitat. During June 2012, bottom photographs and surficial sediment data were acquired as part of a ground-truth reconnaissance survey of this area. Interpretations were derived from the multibeam-echosounder, sidescan-sonar, sedimentary, and photographic data collected in Block Island Sound. For more information on the ground-truth survey see .

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP), is producing detailed geologic maps of the coastal sea floor. Bathymetry and sidescan-sonar imagery, originally collected by NOAA for charting purposes, provide a fundamental framework for research and management activities in Long Island Sound, shows the composition and terrain of the seabed, and provides information on sediment transport and benthic habitat. During April-May 2009 NOAA completed hydrographic survey H12013 offshore of the entrance to the Connecticut River, and during November 2009 and April 2010 bottom photographs and surficial sediment data were acquired as part of two ground-truth reconnaissance surveys of this area. Two interpretive data layers were derived from the multibeam echo-sounder and the ground-truth data used to verify them. For more information on the ground-truth surveys see: http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/operations/ia/public_ds_info.php?fa=2009-059-FA and http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/operations/ia/public_ds_info.php?fa=2010-010-FA