Maldives -- Bleaching?

[Prof Alan E Strong]

Our HotSpot chart is showing potential bleaching waters around the
Maldives and around Dakar, W. Africa this past week.  Does anyone know of
any observers there that might be able to confirm or deny bleaching?

This is in an area where we often have trouble seeing thru Saharan dust as
it blows out over the Atlantic...freqently making our satellite SSTs
erroneously cool.  Since we are seeing anomalously WARM waters at the
moment, we need to find out how accurate our satellite yearly maximum 
value is for that area [it may be too low] to know whether to believe our
HotSpot indicators at the moment.

In any event, it would be interesting find in-situ information from the
Maldives for late-October.

Another area we have been concerned about is off the Venezuelean coast in
the Caribbean and mostly east of Bonaire....SSTs near 30 deg C much of
October....temps are gradually inching up around the Galapagos, too!

Cheers,
Al Strong

**** <>< ******* <>< ******* <>< ******* <>< ******* <>< ******* <>< *****
				Alan E. Strong
Phys Scientist/Oceanographer			  Adj Assoc Professor
  NOAA/NESDIS/ORA/ORAD -- E/RA3			    US Naval Academy
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