NOAA Coral Reef Watch Operational Near-real-time Twice-weekly Global 50 km Satellite Coral Bleaching Thermal Stress Monitoring Product Suite 2000-11-28 to 2020-05-28

Coral Reef Watch's (CRW) near-real-time twice-weekly global 50 km (0.5 degrees exactly) satellite coral bleaching thermal stress monitoring products are CRW's heritage operational products and form the core of CRW's first Decision Support System for tropical coral reef management. The products include Sea Surface Temperature (SST), SST Anomaly, Coral Bleaching HotSpot, Degree Heating Week (DHW), and Bleaching Alert Area products. These products are based on NOAA/NESDIS' operational twice-weekly global 50 km nighttime SST Analysis derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometers (AVHRR) onboard NOAA's Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites (POES). A set of SST climatologies and coral bleaching SST threshold climatology are used to derive SST anomaly, HotSpot, DHW, and Bleaching Alert Area from SST Analysis.

All products are currently updated twice-weekly every Monday morning (using observations from the previous Thursday through Sunday) and Thursday morning (using observations from the previous Monday through Wednesday), U.S. Eastern Time. Prior to May 3, 2007, the products were updated every Tuesday morning (using observations from the previous Saturday through Monday) and Saturday morning (using observations from the previous Tuesday through Friday), U.S. Eastern Time.

The data are available for use without restriction, but it is required to credit NOAA Coral Reef Watch program for any data use. Recommendations for citing and providing credit are provided at http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/satellite/docs/recommendations_crw_citation.php. Users are referred to the footer section of Coral Reef Watch's website (http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/) for disclaimers, policies, notices pertaining to the use of the data.

Data layers included in the data files:
Data Layer; Definition; Type; Dimensions (RxC)
CRW_SST; Twice-weekly global 50km satellite nighttime sea surface temperature; int16; 331x720
CRW_SSTANOMALY; Twice-weekly global 50km satellite nighttime sea surface temperature anomaly; int16; 331x720
CRW_HOTSPOT; Twice-weekly global 50km satellite coral bleaching HotSpot; int16; 331x720
CRW_DHW; Twice-weekly global 50km satellite coral bleaching Degree Heating Week; int16; 331x720
CRW_BAA; Twice-weekly global 50km satellite Bleaching Alert Area; int16; 331x720
surface_flag; Pixel characteristics flag array; uint8; 331x720

Individual SST, and SST Anomaly, HotSpot, DHW, and BAA HDF files contain two data layers including the corresponding data layer named in the table above (CRW_SST, CRW_SSTANOMALY, CRW_HOTSPOT, CRW_DHW, and CRW_BAA) and a surface_flag layer. Each of these files also contains an 8-bit raster image of the corresponding geophysical data layer contained in the file. The dimension of each image is 720 columns by 411 rows. Each image displays a data layer in its pre-defined color scale and the color legend is shown on each image. Corresponding color palette is attached on each image and extractable from the HDF file. An all-in-one file is also available and contains all the data layers, except for the CRW_BAA data layer, listed in the table and their raster images with color palettes.

All these data files are in HDF format, containing internally all the necessary information to understand and to properly use the data.

Liu, G., J.L. Rauenzahn, S.F. Heron, C.M. Eakin, W.J. Skirving, T.R.L. Christensen, A.E. Strong, J. Li (2013). NOAA Coral Reef Watch 50 km Satellite Sea Surface Temperature-Based Decision Support System for Coral Bleaching Management. NOAA Technical Report NESDIS 143. NOAA/NESDIS. College Park, MD. 33pp.
Strong, A.E., F. Arzayus, W. Skirving, and S.F. Heron. Identifying coral bleaching remotely via Coral Reef Watch - improved integration and implications for climate change. Chapter 9 in Coral Reefs and Climate Change: Science and Management, J.T. Phinney, O. Hoegh-Guldberg, J. Kleypas, W. Skirving, and A.E. Strong (Co-Eds), American Geophysical Union, 2006.
Liu G., A.E. Strong, W. Skirving, and L.F. Arzayus, 2006. Overview of NOAA coral reef watch program's near-real time satellite global coral bleaching monitoring activities. Proc 10th Int Coral Reef Symp., Okinawa, Japan, 2004. 1:1783-1793.
Skirving, W.J., A.E. Strong, G. Liu, C. Liu, F. Arzayus, J. Sapper, and E. Bayler. Extreme events and perturbations of coastal ecosystems: Sea surface temperature change and coral bleaching. Chapter 2 in Remote Sensing of Aquatic Coastal Ecosystem Processes, L.L. Richardson and E.F. LeDrew (Co-Eds), Kluwer publishers. January, 2006.
Liu, G., A.E. Strong and W. Skirving (2003). Remote Sensing of Sea Surface Temperatures during 2002 Barrier Reef Coral Bleaching. EOS 84(15): 137.
Liu G., J.E. Meyer, I.C. Guch, and M.A. Toscano, 2001. NOAA's satellite coral reef bleaching early warning products aimed at local reef sites around the globe. Reef Encounter, 30: 10-13.
Goreau, T.J. and R. Hayes, 1994. Coral Bleaching and Ocean "Hot Spots." Ambio, 23:176-180.

A complete list of references is available at
http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/satellite/methodology/methodology.php#reference
http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/satellite/publications.php