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GeoTIFF image of the backscatter intensity of the sea floor offshore of Fire Island Inlet, New York, in 1998 (3-m resolution, Mercator, WGS 84)

Dates

Publication Date
Start Date
1998-11-06
End Date
1998-11-07

Citation

Butman, Bradford, Danforth, W.W., Clark, J.E.H., Signell, R.P., and Schwab, W.C., 2016, Bathymetry and backscatter intensity of the sea floor south of Long Island, New York: U.S. Geological Survey data release, http://dx.doi.org/10.5066/F7Z899GG.

Summary

Surveys of the bathymetry and backscatter intensity of the sea floor south of Long Island, New York, were carried out in November 1998 using a Simrad EM1000 multibeam echosounder mounted on the Canadian Coast Guard ship Frederick G. Creed. The purpose of the multibeam echosounder surveys was to explore the bathymetry and backscatter intensity of the sea floor in several areas off the southern coast of Long Island along the 20-meter isobath. Survey areas offshore of Fire Island Inlet, Moriches Inlet, Shinnecock Inlet, and southwest of Montauk Point were about 1 kilometer (km) wide and 10 km long. The area was mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey with support from the Canadian Hydrographic Service and the University of New Brunswick.

Contacts

Attached Files

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fire_backi3m_browse.jpg
“Image of bacsckatter intensity.”
thumbnail 54.24 KB image/jpeg
fire_backi3m.zip
“Download of data and metadata.”
1.57 MB application/zip

Purpose

This data release makes multibeam echosounder data from the 1998 survey of the sea floor offshore of Fire Island Inlet, New York, available in digital form. The GeoTIFF image of backscatter intensity provides qualitative information on the sediment texture and roughness of the sea floor. Backscatter intensity, a measure of the strength of the acoustic return from the sea floor, is a function of the properties of the surficial sediments and of the bottom roughness. Generally high backscatter intensity (strong return), shown as light gray tones, is associated with rock or coarse-grained sediment, and low backscatter intensity (weak return), shown as dark gray tones, with fine-grained sediments.

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