[Coral-List] Coral Reef Watch launches enhanced satellite-SST bleaching monitoring products

[Mark Eakin]

The new NOAA Coral Reef Watch (CRW) enhanced satellite 50 km (E-50)  
twice-weekly coral bleaching monitoring product suite is now available  
for the coral reef community.  It is an improved version of its  
current operational 50 km monitoring product suite that includes sea  
surface temperature (SST), SST anomaly, HotSpot, Degree Heating Weeks  
(DHW), and Bleaching Alert Area products.

The E-50 product suite provides two major improvements over the  
current operational 50 km product suite.  First, the new land mask  
allows us to provide SST and related products for many pixels that  
include both land and water. The E-50 product suite provides  
monitoring for more than 99% of 50 km pixels that contain coral reefs  
around the world, compared to 40% for our operational products.   
Secondly, the E-50 products use an improved set of climatologies based  
on 4km Pathfinder satellite SST data that addresses known errors in  
the climatologies used in the operational products.  These errors  
caused overestimation of bleaching thermal stress in certain areas,  
such as the regions around Gulf of Panama and Gulf of Oman.

This enhanced product suite provides improved coastal coverage and  
more accurate monitoring for coral bleaching. Currently it is  
available as an experimental product suite and is subject to change  
during testing and evaluation including direct comparisons against in  
situ reef SST data. Once it is fully evaluated over time, it will  
replace the operational product suite. The enhanced product suite and  
detailed description are available at http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/satellite/e50 
.. Please review the detailed introduction and description of the E-50  
product at our website before using the E-50 product.


We welcome your comments and input in the process at coralreefwatch at noaa.gov 
..


Cheers,
Mark
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C. Mark Eakin, Ph.D.
Coordinator, NOAA Coral Reef Watch
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Center for Satellite Applications and Research
Satellite Oceanography & Climate Division
e-mail: mark.eakin at noaa.gov
url: coralreefwatch.noaa.gov

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