[Coral-List] A few announcements from the Allen Coral Atlas team

[Andrea Rivera-Sosa]

Hello Coral List,



A few announcements from the Allen Coral Atlas team.



As a reminder, the Allen Coral Atlas is a multi-tool platform that offers
global coverage mapping of shallow coral reefs in unprecedented consistency
created with satellite imagery and machine learning algorithms. The project
includes benthic and geomorphic mapping layers, high resolution seamless
image mosaics, and dynamic monitoring tools.



The Allen Coral Atlas team have several exciting updates:



1. Coral reef bleaching monitoring is now global!



The Allen Coral Atlas has launched a unique satellite-imagery-based global
monitoring system.  This  new bleaching monitoring system is triggered by
NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch data, and will allow researchers, conservationists,
and policy-makers to observe for the first time where corals appear to be
bleaching throughout the world, ranging from no bleaching to severe, based
on biweekly and globally comparable remotely-sensed data. This innovative
tool represents a major step in our ability to support conservation
efforts, promote research, and educate a new generation of scientists.
Check out the new system (https://bit.ly/33TICnT) and read about the
methods behind it in our Science and Methods section (
https://allencoralatlas.org/methods/).



With this new bleaching tool pioneered by Arizona State University, the
next step is to develop a global network of scientists and practitioners to
build consensus around a common mechanism to report bleaching without
changing the way monitoring programs operate, and to ground-truth the
satellite detection. If you monitor coral bleaching anywhere in the world,
we would greatly appreciate it if you fill out this form (
https://forms.gle/cnvWoyiSPJFDCNQ38) Thank you!



2. We have completed mapping benthic and geomorphic mapping for the
following regions:



Andaman Sea

Central Indian Ocean

Coral Sea

Eastern Africa & Madagascar

Eastern Papua New Guinea & Solomon Islands

Great Barrier Reef & Torres Strait

Hawaiian Islands

Northern Caribbean, Florida, & Bahamas

The Philippines

South China Sea

Southeast Asian Archipelago (including Indonesia)

Southeastern Asia

Southern Asia

Southwestern Pacific

Timor & Arafura Sea

Wetsern Australia

Western Indian Ocean

Western Micronesia



The following regions are still in the process of being mapped:



Southeastern Caribbean

Mesoamerican Reef

Red Sea

Gulf of Aden

Northwestern Arabian Sea

Eastern Micronesia

Bermuda

Central South Pacific

Tropical Eastern Pacific

Northeastern Asia

Brazil

Subtropical Eastern Australia



As always, we welcome your feedback,

Please submit any identified errors with suggested corrections to
corrections at allencoralatlas.org including:

   -

   Copy the URL
   -

   Suggestion for correction/s
   -

   Possibly include: Reef name(s), Coordinates and/or a georeferenced
   polygon (in kml, shapefile, or JSON format); detailed  explanation of the
   error; any relevant field data



Although not all changes are guaranteed to be implemented, feedback helps
to improve the automated mapping algorithm and will improve our overall
accuracy. Providing additional data to our team will especially help us
improve the Atlas mapping layers in your region of interest.



Best,



The Allen Coral Atlas Team