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

References

Figures List

Acknowledgments

Contacts

Disclaimer

README

 README BACKGROUND

During 2001 The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) completed a sidescan sonar survey (H11043) that covered an area of the sea floor in north-central Long Island Sound off Branford, Connecticut. The U.S. Geological Survey, in collaboration with NOAA , has produced various interpretive data layers of the mosaic.  This CD-ROM contains digital versions of this sidescan imagery and interpretive data layers and maps showing distributions of surficial features, sediments, and sedimentary environments.

The imagery and its interpretations are provided to help define the geological variability of the sea floor, improve our understanding of surficial processes, and provide a detailed framework for future research, monitoring, and management activities.

CD-ROM CONTENTS

There are four top-level files and two top-level directories contained on this CD-ROM.

The top-level files are:

1. readme.htm (this file) - The file contains a description of this CD-ROM and may be viewed or printed by the user with any WWW browser..

2. readme.txt (the ASCII version of this file) - The file contains a description of this CD-ROM and may be viewed or printed by the user with any system program capable of opening an ASCII text file.

3. index.htm - This file is intended to be the starting point for CD-ROM access. It is written in the Hyper-Text Markup Language utilized by the World Wide Web (WWW) project and must be opened with a WWW browser. Once opened, the user may browse the CD-ROM's contents as they would browse pages from the WWW.

4. h11043.apr - An ArcView 3.3 project file containing the GIS data layers. This file facilitates the viewing of the shapefiles and related image data sets. If the user does not have ArcView available, they may access the shapefiles by downloading ESRI's ArcExplorer software at no charge from the ESRI website (www.esri.com)

The three main directories include:

Directory htmldocs/

This directory contains four directories and sub-directories used to format the HTML files and supporting graphics to allow the user access to the report via any World Wide Web browser. The major sub-directories include the following:

css/ - this directory contains the cascading style sheet used to format the layout of the HTML pages

figures/ - this directory contains HTML page layouts of the various
figures referenced in the publication.

icons/ - this directory contains images used as icons in the layout of the various HTML pages

images/ - this directory contains images used in the HTML page layouts

Directory data/

This directory contains five subdirectories that contain the various GIS data layers and appropriate metadata. The main sub-directories including the following data:

basemaps/ - contains basemap data used in the ArcView project file. Basemap data include a general U.S. land and coastline shapefile, rivers, cities and urbanized areas for the Long Island Sound GIS project area.

bathy/ - contains a 1 m bathymetric contour file for the Long Island Sound area

interp/ -this directory contains three subdirectories that contain the completed sidescan sonar interpretations

seddata/ - includes the surficial sediment shapefile data layer along with Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) compliant metadata, and an archive zip file for the Long Island Sound project area

sidescan/ - this directory contains the H11043 sidescan sonar mosaic.  The completed, full resolution, mosaic is available in both a UTM and geographic projections as well as enhanced and unenhanced version.

TECHNICAL NOTES

This disk has been tested for use on computers having Windows 98/NT/2000/XP and Macintosh operating systems.

Access to the data and information contained in this report was developed using the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) utilized by the World Wide Web (WWW) project. This allows the user to access the information using WWW information browsers (i.e., Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape). To start, open the file 'index.htm' at the top-level directory of this disc with your browser.

There are Internet links to USGS collaborators and websites included in this report. These links are only accessible if access to the Internet is available when browsing the CD-ROM, and if those linked sites are operating.

DISCLAIMER

This report (published on CD-ROM) was prepared by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the U.S. Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed in this report, or represents that its use would not infringe on privately owned rights. Reference therein to any specific commercial product, process, or service, by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the U.S. Government or any agency thereof.

Although all data and software published in this report have been used by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by the USGS as to the accuracy of the data and related materials and (or) the functioning of the software. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by the USGS in the use of this data, software, or related materials.