Sidescan Sonar Imagery and Surficial Geologic Interpretation
of the Sea Floor off Branford, Connecticut

OFR 2004-1003 Home 

Introduction

Geologic Setting

Data Acquisition and Processing

Sidescan Imagery

GIS Data Catalog

  Sidescan  Imagery
and Interpretation
     Surficial Samples
  Bathymetry Contours
  Basemap Data

References

Figures List

Acknowledgments

Contacts

Disclaimer

README

 GIS DATA CATALOG

This CD-ROM contains several data layers (or themes) that are used to create a geographic planar view of the Long Island Sound region. The locations of the USGS sidescan sonar mosaics, the NOAA sidescan sonar mosaic, and associated sediment data may be viewed over this geographic planar view.

Data layers are provided with geographic coordinates to allow the data to be integrated into a Geographic Information System (GIS).  A GIS is defined as a system of hardware and software to support the display, manipulation, and analysis of spatial data for mapping and complex data solving.  This integrated package provides researchers the ability to integrate, analyze and map the various datasets to help with economic and social policy-making decisions regarding the environment.

This project uses the Environmental Systems Research Institute's (ESRI) ArcView and ArcGIS software as its Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping tool. Data layers archived here should not require additional processing to be utilized within the ESRI software. This does not mean that a user will not wish to do additional processing, especially if utilizing a different GIS software package or spheroid, but that it is not necessary to do additional processing simply to utilize the data in its minimum archive format

The vector data consists of a single point data layer, lisseddata, that provides the surficial sample locations and attribute information, a vector data layer, lisbathy, that provides the 1 meter bathymetric contours, and a polygon data layer, nos80k, that provides the coastline for the Long Island Sound GIS project area. Other data layers include locations of major metropolitan areas, urban areas and major water ways.

For those who don't have the ESRI software or a compatible GIS data browser available on their computer, a free viewer, ArcExplorer, is available from ESRI here. Please note that the ArcExplorer software is limited to the Microsoft Windows operating systems.  The key functionality of ArcExplorer is the viewing of spatial data. The user will need to add the selected data layers by using ArcExplorer's add data button. 

Each GIS data layer from this publication is cataloged below for easy access. The individual data layers are described below and include the shapefile name (e.g. lisseddata) which is linked to a browse graphic showing the data layer extent and coverage.   Selecting the data layer name will result in the browse graphic being displayed in a separate browser window.

Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata for the individual data layers is  provided in three versions (HTML, FAQ, text). Selecting associated metadata files from the table below will open the information in a new browser window.

A 'zip' compressed, downloadable archive file containing the components of the ArcView shapefile for each data layer is also provided. Compressed downloadable files were created using the Windows program WINZIP v8.0. For those users who do not have software capable of uncompressing the archived zip files, they may obtain a free version of the software from Winzip Computing, Inc. or Pkware, Inc..

In addition to the ESRI shapefile, the Long Island Sound sediment data layer (lisseddata) is available in an ASCII text format and Microsoft Excel spreadsheet formats to allow users who may not have access to GIS software to read the data layer tabular information in an alternate format.  The first record of the ASCII file and Excel spreadsheet contains the name of the data fields for that file.

SIDESCAN SONAR IMAGERY

SIDESCAN SONAR INTERPRETATION

SURFICIAL SAMPLES

BATHYMETRY CONTOURS

BASEMAP DATA