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.

鉴于其生态价值、休闲功能与商业意义，长岛海峡（Long Island Sound）内的近岸区域深受康涅狄格州与纽约州的科研与管理学界关注。然而，尽管多波束测深仪（multibeam echosounder）技术的进步已可支持在深水区构建高精度海底地形数字地形模型，但多波束数据采集本身存在固有局限，导致该技术在水深小于10米的浅水区应用不仅难度更高，成本也更为昂贵。此类局限往往会在多波束测深数据集与邻近岸线之间形成数据空白区域。为解决这一问题，研究团队将康涅狄格州新伦敦与奈安蒂克湾近海外侧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。最终得到的数据集可呈现更为连续的海底地貌视图，且数字测深数据与岸线之间的数据空白大幅缩小。本数据集以ESRI格网（ESRI grid）与GeoTIFF格式提供，以提升数据的可获取性、兼容性与实用性。