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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 (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