[Coral-List] Request for field observations: Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary

Jim Hendee jim.hendee at noaa.gov
Mon Aug 9 07:24:13 EDT 2010


Greetings,

    Of the many sites we monitor for conditions theoretically conducive
to mass coral bleaching (e.g., high sea temperature, low winds, and high
irradiance, through in situ or satellite data) at
http://ecoforecast.coral.noaa.gov, four sites are in the Flower Garden
Banks National Marine Sanctuary in the northern Gulf of Mexico.  Since a
whole armada of various government, industry and private vessels have
been in that region, due to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, we here at
AOML/CHAMP are wondering if there have been any observations of
bleaching at the following four virtual station sites, where conditions
appear to be possibly conducive to such an event:

    Sonnier Banks  (28.353 ° latitude, -92.483 ° longitude)
    West Flower Garden Bank  (27.883 ° latitude, -93.84 ° longitude)
    East Flower Garden Bank  (27.927 ° latitude, -93.626 ° longitude)
    Stetson Bank  (28.179 ° latitude, -94.312 ° longitude)


    Feedback helps us to fine-tune our forecasting and modeling efforts,
so any direct observations  as to species, dates, environmental
conditions, location, etc. would be helpful.  An example report is shown
at the bottom, and please note that we consider these reports as
research mode only, not operational.

    Cheers,

        Jim Hendee
        Coral Health and Monitoring Program
        Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory
        National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
        Miami, FL

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ecological Forecast: 'Mass bleaching of hard corals'
Station/Site: East Flower Garden Bank 'virtual monitoring site', FGB National Marine Sanctuary (EBFG1)
Forecast/diagnostic generated on 7 Aug 2010  10:29:56 p.m.


====
Forecast as of Friday, 2010-Aug-06 (Day 218)

Model Rule:
    'Mass coral bleaching (high SST + high light + low wind)'

    Stimulus/Response Index (S/RI) = 51, because:
            Photosynthetically Active Radiation at ocean surface (Parsurf) was High (1718.697) during period Mid Day
            hourly average wind speed (Windsp) was Low (5.26) during period All Day
            REMSS 'MISST' blended microwave/infrared SST (Sst) was High (31.123) during period All Day

Cumulative Stimulus/Response Index: 51

Follow the links below to see plots of local and regional environmental
conditions related to this particular Ecological Forecast:

Summary of environmental data (including in situ, if available) for this site:
    http://ecoforecast.coral.noaa.gov/index/0/EBFG1/station-graphs/EBFG1-SENSORS
Browse detailed maps of the Multi-Instrument Sea Surface Temperature (MISST) for this date:
    http://www.remss.com/sst/sst_data_daily.html?sat=mw_ir&size=medium&year=2010&month=08&day=06
Browse all MODIS satellite SST and chlorophyll_a imagery for this date:
    http://modis.marine.usf.edu/daily/2010218.html
Browse NDBC ship-board and in situ observations near this site for the PAST 12 HOURS:
    http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/radial_search.php?lat1=27.927N&lon1=93.626W&uom=M&dist=150&time=12
Browse QuickSCAT winds from both daily passes ('morning' and 'evening') on this date:
    http://www.ssmi.com/qscat/scatterometer_data_daily.html?size=medium&year=2010&month=08&day=06
Browse the 3-day composite of satellite wind speeds and rain-fall rates for this date:
    http://www.ssmi.com/ssmi/ssmi_data_3day.html?&keep=0&year=2010&month=08&day=06







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