[Coral-List] NOAA Coral Reef Watch Releases New 5-km Coral Bleaching Products

[jacqueline.shapo@noaa.govGMAIL]

Apologies for any cross-postings.

Good Afternoon, Everyone,

Higher spatial resolution is the improvement to NOAA Coral Reef Watch 
(http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/satellite/index.html) remote-sensing 
products most requested by coral reef ecosystem scientists and resource 
managers. NOAA Coral Reef Watch and its partners have developed a new 
experimental daily global 5 km coral bleaching thermal stress monitoring 
product suite, now available on the Coral Reef Watch web site: 
http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/satellite/bleaching5km/index.html.The new 
5 km coral bleaching product suite is based on NOAA's next-generation 
operational daily global 5 km sea surface temperature (SST) analysis, 
derived from a blend of geostationary and polar-orbiting satellite 
observations. Significant advances in satellite SST algorithms ensure 
dramatic improvements over Coral Reef Watch's current twice-weekly 50 km 
SST operational coral reef environment monitoring products 
(http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/satellite/index.html). Coral Reef 
Watch's next-generation 5 km global coral bleaching thermal stress 
monitoring product suite (which consists of SST, SST Anomaly, Coral 
Bleaching HotSpots, Degree Heating Weeks (DHW), and Bleaching Alert Area 
products) is updated daily, has 100 times finer resolution, and uses 10 
to 50 times more satellite observations than the current 50 km 
operational product suite. The next-generation 5 km product suite can, 
therefore, provide near coral reef-scale temperature at high data 
densities to help managers track climate change impacts on coral reef 
environments.

Development of the experimental daily global 5 km coral bleaching 
thermal stress monitoring product suite has been accomplished through a 
collaboration of NOAA Coral Reef Watch, the University of South Florida, 
NASA-Ames, the United Nations Environment Programme's World Conservation 
Monitoring Centre, and the Cooperative Institute for Research in 
Environmental Science at the University of Colorado, with funding 
support from the NASA Ecological Forecasting Program and the NOAA Coral 
Reef Conservation Program (http://coralreef.noaa.gov/). The new products 
will be announced during the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium in 
Cairns, Australia, 9-13 July 2012. Work will continue over the next year 
to refine the climatology and product suite and prepare the products for 
transition to operations.For more information, please visit: 
http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/satellite/bleaching5km/index.html.

Your feedback is important for us to improve our products. Please send 
your comments and suggestions to coralreefwatch at noaa.gov 
<mailto:coralreefwatch at noaa.gov?subject=[Question/feedback%20for%20CFS-based%20Bleaching%20Outlook%5d>.


5 km coral bleaching thermal stress monitoring products: 
http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/satellite/bleaching5km/index.html

NOAA Coral Reef Watch: http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/satellite/index.html


Thank you very much!

Warm Regards,

Jacquie Rauenzahn

-- 
*********************************

Jacqueline Rauenzahn

Coral Reef Watch Operations Manager
NOAA/NESDIS/STAR/CRW
E/RA31, SSMC1, 5th Floor, Room 5306
1335 East-West Highway
Silver Spring, MD 20910

PLEASE NOTE NEW PHONE NUMBER: 301-713-7194
Fax: 301-713-3136
Email: Jacqueline.Shapo at noaa.gov