Coral Reef Watch Satellite Monitoring


                    

Announcements

Oct 31, 2012:
New Release: Satellite Coral Bleaching Light Stress Damage Product - Caribbean

Jul 5, 2012:
New Release: 5 km Satellite Coral Bleaching Thermal Stress Monitoring Products

Jun 30, 2012:
New Release: Probabilistic Seasonal Coral Bleaching Thermal Stress Outlook

Past Announcements

NOAA's Coral Reef Watch Program's satellite data provide current reef environmental conditions to quickly identify areas at risk for coral bleaching, where corals lose the symbiotic algae that give them their distinctive colors. If a coral is severely bleached, disease and partial mortality become likely, and the entire colony may die.

Continuous monitoring of sea surface temperature at global scales provides researchers and stakeholders with tools to understand and better manage the complex interactions leading to coral bleaching. When bleaching conditions occur, these tools can be used to trigger bleaching response plans and support appropriate management decisions.

The Coral Reef Watch mission is to utilize remote sensing and in situ tools for near-real-time and long term monitoring, modeling and reporting of physical environmental conditions of coral reef ecosystems.

Coral Reef Watch is part of the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) and the National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service (NESDIS).

Our satellite product suite is a key aspect to NOAA's monitoring system for coral reef ecosystems, the Coral Reef Ecosystem Integrated Observing System (CREIOS).

If you have questions, please visit our online tutorial or the product overview page.