This report contains several data layers (or themes) that show bathymetry and sidescan-sonar imagery of Rhode Island Sound. GeoTIFFs produced from grids of the NOAA sidescan-sonar and multibeam echo sounder surveys and NGDC Coastal Relief Model are provided in geographic and universal transverse mercator projections, along with the multibeam grids. Available vector data consists of a polygon data layer, nos80k_84 that provides the coastline for the Rhode Island Sound GIS project area.

Data layers are provided with geographic coordinates to allow the data to be integrated into a Geographic Information System (GIS). Data layers archived here do not require additional processing to be utilized within the Environmental Systems Research Institute's (ESRI) ArcView and ArcGIS 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.

For those who do not have the ESRI software or a compatible GIS data browser available on their computer, a free viewer, ArcExplorer, is available from ESRI. Please note that the ArcExplorer software is limited to 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 GeoTIFF, grid, or shapefile name (e.g. h11320_geo_4m) 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 a text version. 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 ESRI shapefile for each data layer is also provided. Compressed downloadable files were created using the Windows program WINZIP v9.0. 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.

Sidescan-Sonar Imagery

Bathymetric Imagery

Bathymetric Grids

Interpretive Data

Basemap Data

Links

ESRI: http://www.esri.com
Winzip Computing, Inc.: http://www.winzip.com
Pkware, Inc.: http://www.pkware.com
FGDC: http://www.fgdc.gov