Color Shaded-Relief GeoTIFF Image Showing the Combined 4-m Multibeam and LIDAR Bathymetry Generated from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Surveys H11441 and H11224 Offshore of New London, CT (NLONDON_MBLIDAR_GEO.TIF, Geographic, WGS84)

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.

长岛海峡（Long Island Sound）内的近岸区域因其生态、休闲与商业价值，受到康涅狄格州与纽约州科研及管理界的高度关注。然而，尽管多波束测深仪（multibeam echosounder）技术的进步已可在较深水域构建高精度的海底地形数字模型，但该技术在水深小于10米的浅水区开展数据采集存在固有局限，导致作业难度更高、成本更为昂贵。这类局限往往使得多波束水深数据集与邻近岸线之间出现无数据空白区。为解决这一问题，研究人员将康涅狄格州新伦敦及尼安蒂克湾近海获取的全覆盖多波束测深数据，与沿近岸采集的水文激光雷达（hydrographic LIDAR）数据进行了融合。最终得到了更连续的海底地形视图，且数字水深数据与岸线之间的空白区域大幅缩小。本次发布的数据集采用ESRI网格（ESRI grid）与GeoTIFF格式，以提升数据的可访问性、兼容性与实用性。