[Coral-List] Reefs and red tides on Google Earth

[John McManus]

Google has a new product "Google Earth" which should be of considerable
interest to reef scientists. The free download allows users to zoom into any
part of the Earth. Many of the world's large reef systems are clearly
visible in low-resolution imagery from as close as about a virtual mile up.
In Bermuda and eastern Nassau, you can fly through coral patches in higher
resolution from about 700 feet (most likely the intent was to use
high-resolution images to show houses, and the reef data was included
incidentally). 

 

Off the west coast of Indonesia near Aceh (due west of Singapore), there is
what appears to be a massive red tide. Part of it extends close to a river
outlet. Unfortunately, the date of the image is not listed, other than
noting that most images were within the last two years. They will be
updating images, so you might want to grab images like this via the email
function. 

 

I expect to use this tool to help teach about coral reefs and their
distributions. Some of you might consider this as well. It really brings
across the point that approaching from space, one sees first the oceans,
then land, and then coral reefs. 

 

Cheers!

 

John

 

____________________________________

*** Please note new phone numbers (361 now 421) ***

 

John W. McManus, PhD.

Professor, Marine Biology and Fisheries

Director, National Center for Caribbean Coral Reef Research (NCORE)

Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science

4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL, 33149

305-421-4814, 305-421-4820,       Fax: 305-421-4910

www.ncoremiami.org

jmcmanus at rsmas.miami.edu

 

"If I cannot build it, I do not understand it." -- Richard P. Feynman, Nobel
Laureate