Skip to main content
Article
Reef-Scale Thermal Stress Monitoring of Coral Ecosystems: New 5-km Global Products from NOAA Coral Reef Watch
Remote Sensing
  • Gang Liu, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • Scott F. Heron, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • C. Mark Eakin, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • Frank E. Muller-Karger, University of South Florida
  • María Vega-Rodriguez, University of South Florida
  • Liane S. Guild, U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  • Jacqueline L. De La Cour, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • Erick F. Geiger, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • William J. Skirving, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • Timothy F. R. Burgess, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • Alan E. Strong, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • Andy Harris, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • Eileen Maturi, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • Alexander Ignatov, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • John Sapper, NESDIS/OSPO, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • Jianke Li, DigitalGlobe, Inc.
  • Susan Lynds, University of Colorado
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-20-2014
Keywords
  • bleaching,
  • thermal stress,
  • satellite,
  • remote sensing,
  • sea surface temperature (SST),
  • monitoring,
  • climatology,
  • hotspots,
  • degree heating week,
  • bleaching alert area
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs61111579
Disciplines
Abstract

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coral Reef Watch (CRW) program has developed a daily global 5-km product suite based on satellite observations to monitor thermal stress on coral reefs. These products fulfill requests from coral reef managers and researchers for higher resolution products by taking advantage of new satellites, sensors and algorithms. Improvements of the 5-km products over CRW’s heritage global 50-km products are derived from: (1) the higher resolution and greater data density of NOAA’s next-generation operational daily global 5-km geo-polar blended sea surface temperature (SST) analysis; and (2) implementation of a new SST climatology derived from the Pathfinder SST climate data record. The new products increase near-shore coverage and now allow direct monitoring of 95% of coral reefs and significantly reduce data gaps caused by cloud cover. The 5-km product suite includes SST Anomaly, Coral Bleaching HotSpots, Degree Heating Weeks and Bleaching Alert Area, matching existing CRW products. When compared with the 50-km products and in situ bleaching observations for 2013–2014, the 5-km products identified known thermal stress events and matched bleaching observations. These near reef-scale products significantly advance the ability of coral reef researchers and managers to monitor coral thermal stress in near-real-time.

Rights Information
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
Citation / Publisher Attribution

Remote Sensing, v. 6, issue 11, p. 11579-11606

Citation Information
Gang Liu, Scott F. Heron, C. Mark Eakin, Frank E. Muller-Karger, et al.. "Reef-Scale Thermal Stress Monitoring of Coral Ecosystems: New 5-km Global Products from NOAA Coral Reef Watch" Remote Sensing Vol. 6 Iss. 11 (2014) p. 11579 - 11606
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/frank_muller-karger/38/