Processed acoustic backscatter data for Long Island Sound from Phase II of the Long Island Sound (LIS) Benthic Habitat Priority project.

This integrated acoustic backscatter grid in GeoTIFF format was generated to provide the LIS Mapping and Research Collaborative with a baseline model for benthic habitat classification as part of Phase II of the Long Island Sound (LIS) Benthic Habitat Priority Areas of Interest (AOI) project. The GeoTIFF file in this data set contains acoustic backscatter data combined from different multibeam bathymetry surveys. The original Phase II data sets were surveyed by NOAA Ship Nancy Foster (R-352), NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson, and the Navigation Response Team (NRT-5) using 400 khz Reson 7125 multibeam sonars from 2003 to 2014. In 2018, the LIS Cable Fund contracted the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) to fill gaps and resurvey areas where multibeam data was not acceptable with the R/V Pritchard using 400 khz Kongsberg dual-swath EM2040C multibeam sonars in coordination with the NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) Biogeography Branch and the NOAA Integrated Ocean and Coastal Mapping (IOCM) Program. The multibeam and LiDAR data sets were corrected, calibrated, and integrated into a seamless 32-bit raster using CARIS and ArcGIS. Backscatter data was collected and mosaicked into a raster using Fledermaus Geocoder Toolbox, ArcGIS 10.4, and PCI Geomatica 2018 software. The acoustic backscatter grid is in GeoTIFF raster format. Funding was provided by the Long Island Sound Study and by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP).