NOAA Confirms 4th Global Coral Bleaching Event.
NEW RELEASE: Single-pixel satellite Virtual Stations for the Samoas.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch releases its Version 3.5 Thermal History product suite, spanning 1985-2023.
PRODUCT UPDATE: NOAA Coral Reef Watch's Bleaching Alert Area product
now features Bleaching Alert Levels 1-5. New Alert Levels (3-5) provide important, added detail, for when extreme marine heat stress
exceeds Alert Level 2 conditions.
New NOAA Coral Reef Watch paper in Science, Coral reefs in peril in a record-breaking year
.
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NOAA press release about the paper.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch releases an updated Version 3.4 Thermal History product suite, spanning 1985-2022.
NEW RELEASE: Single-pixel satellite Virtual Stations for Puerto Rico.
NEW RELEASE: Single-pixel satellite Virtual Stations for Florida.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch releases its Version 3.3 Thermal History product suite, spanning 1985-2022.
A NOAA Coral Reef Watch paper in F1000Research (originally published online on February 1, 2022)
analyzes CRW's operational daily global 5km satellite heat stress products to reveal that the Great Barrier Reef in Australia
started the 2021-22 summer season with more accumulated heat stress than ever before in the satellite record (1985-present).
NEW RELEASE: Single-pixel satellite Virtual Stations for the U.S. Virgin Islands.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch releases its Version 3.2 Thermal History product suite, spanning 1985-2021.
Click here to
read a NOAA/NESDIS Feature Story about Dr. Derek Manzello, NOAA Coral Reef Watch's Federal Coordinator,
and learn more about how satellites help monitor the coral reef environment and climate change impacts, especially coral bleaching, all over the world.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch is now featuring a new, enhanced image style for its
daily global 5km satellite coral bleaching heat stress monitoring products.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch releases its Version 3.1.1 Thermal History product suite, spanning 1985-2020.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch releases its Version 3.1.0 Thermal History product suite, spanning 1985-2019.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch releases its 5km products tutorial. Learn more about coral reefs, coral bleaching,
satellite remote sensing of the marine environment, and Coral Reef Watch's daily global and regional 5km-resolution satellite coral bleaching
heat stress monitoring products.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch releases a 5km methodology web page,
detailing the 5km satellite products, climatologies, composites, animations, and data, which are now the core of CRW's decision support system for coral reef management.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch has retired its heritage twice-weekly global 50km satellite coral bleaching heat stress monitoring products, and officially
entered a new era of coral bleaching heat stress monitoring with its next-generation
daily global 5km satellite products.
Click here to access the archived 50km data and images.
Click here for NOAA Coral Reef Watch's final update on the
severe coral bleaching heat stress on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia in early 2020. Prior updates were issued on
February 25,
February 27,
March 4,
March 10, and
March 18.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch releases its Version 1.0 Daily 5km Marine Heatwave Watch (MHW) product,
identifying areas all over the world with prolonged anomalously high sea surface temperature (marine heatwaves).
NOAA Coral Reef Watch releases its Version 2.1 Thermal History product suite
spanning 1985-2018.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch Coordinator leads special issue in Coral Reefs,
The 2014–2017 Global Coral Bleaching Event: Drivers, Impacts, and Lessons Learned.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch co-authored study
shows severe marine heatwaves on coral reefs are biologically distinct from, but can cause and/or be more detrimental than coral bleaching events.
For more information, click here,
or visit the NOAA Coral Reef Information System's publication feature page.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch releases its Version 3.1 daily 5km Regional Virtual Stations and free, automated
Satellite Bleaching Alert Email System.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch co-authored publication
wins "Remote Sensing 10th Anniversary Best Paper Award".
NOAA Coral Reef Watch releases an enhanced Thermal History product suite (Version 2.0).
NOAA Coral Reef Watch leads a UNESCO report updating
climate change impacts on World Heritage coral reefs under a global temperature increase limited to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch releases a newly-enhanced Version 3.1 daily global 5km coral bleaching heat stress product suite, including
new year-to-date, monthly, and annual product composites.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch authors a sidebar about the 2014-2017
global coral bleaching event in the "State of the Climate in 2017" report.
The sidebar was featured in the joint NOAA-American Meteorological
Society media briefing presentation given August 1.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch co-authors a new paper in
Conservation Letters identifying a portfolio of coral reefs worldwide that may be less vulnerable to climate change.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch launches new Daily 750m VIIRS Ocean Color products for Hawaii and Puerto Rico.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch co-authors a new paper
in Nature analyzing mass mortality of Great Barrier Reef corals and regional-scale shifts in coral assemblages following the 2016 mass bleaching event.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch releases an improved Version 5
Four-Month Coral Bleaching Heat Stress Outlook product suite.
Introducing 'CoralTemp', NOAA Coral Reef Watch's
new Daily Global 5km Sea Surface Temperature (SST) data product, spanning 1985-present. Coral Reef Watch's
daily global 5km coral bleaching heat stress product suite is now derived from the 'CoralTemp' SST product.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch co-authors a new Science
publication analyzing coral bleaching frequency in a warming world.
New NOAA Coral Reef Watch paper in Remote Sensing
details Light Stress Damage algorithm.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch releases enhanced Thermal History product suite.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch launches a new Florida Reef Tract Coral Larval Connectivity product.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch releases a newly-enhanced Version 4
Four-Month Coral Bleaching Heat Stress Outlook product suite.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch releases an improved suite of 5km global
and regional coral bleaching heat stress products (Version 3).
NOAA Coral Reef Watch co-authors a new
high-resolution global mass coral bleaching database,
published in PLoS ONE.
Databases described in the paper can be accessed here.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch co-authors a Nature
cover story on the severe coral bleaching in 2016 on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Click
here for additional information.
A NOAA Coral Reef Watch paper in
Scientific Reports
examines temperature trends and variability of bleaching on global coral reefs. Click
here for NOAA's feature about the paper.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch launches a new 5-km Satellite Bleaching Alert Email System. Click
here to subscribe or change your existing subscription.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch releases a new version of its Light Stress Damage product suite.
Coral Reef Watch launches a new Hawai'i Coral Reef Larval Connectivity product.
New Coral Reef Watch-authored paper in
Reef Encounter
provides status update on the third documented global coral bleaching event (2014-17?) and makes an appeal
for bleaching observations from the field.
Coral Reef Watch co-authored paper in Science says climate
change will increase bleaching risk to the Great Barrier Reef more than originally thought.
2015
Annual Summaries of Bleaching Thermal Conditions for the U.S. NCRMP Jurisdictions now online.
Coral Reef Watch was featured in a joint NOAA-AGU press release at the 2016 Ocean Sciences Meeting:
El Niño Prolongs Longest Global Coral Bleaching Event.
Coral Reef Watch has just launched on social media. Please like our
Facebook page
and follow us on Twitter @coralreefwatch.
Two new Coral Reef Watch papers on marine disease products:
Maynard et al. and
Groner et al.
Coral Reef Watch was featured in a NOAA press release:
NOAA declares third ever global coral bleaching event.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch accounces its data call for 2014-present coral bleaching observations! To learn more or to submit
your coral bleaching data to us, click here.
Coral Reef Watch was featured in a NOAA press release:
Coral bleaching threat increasing in western Atlantic and Pacific oceans: Rising ocean temperatures threaten spread of
major heat stress to Hawaiian reefs.
New paper in
Science contrasts threats that two potential carbon dioxide emission pathways pose
to marine ecosystems and the goods and services they provide.
New paper in
Frontiers in Marine Science discusses projected climate change impacts on chemical,
physical and biological processes in the oceans.
Coral Reef Watch was featured in a Climate.gov article:
El Niño up coral bleaching threat in the Caribbean.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch (CRW) released its
June 2015 Global Coral Bleaching Update, discussing predictions for the upcoming coral bleaching season,
based on CRW's newly released
5-km satellite coral bleaching thermal stress monitoring products and recently updated
Four-Month Bleaching Thermal Stress Outlook.
NOAA CRW released a new
Daily 5-km Satellite 7-Day Sea Surface Temperature (SST) Trend product that provides information on the
pace and direction of SST variation, and thus coral bleaching thermal stress, if present, over the past seven days.
A new paper in
Nature Climate Change, co-authored by NOAA Coral Reef Watch (CRW) staff, indicates there will be a significant
increase in some coral diseases as the oceans warm.
Coral Reef Watch was featured in a NOAA/NESDIS News article:
Preserving Our Coral Reefs: How NOAA's Polar-orbiting Satellite Data are used to Help Reef Conservation Around the World.
Coral Reef Watch was featured in a Climate.gov article:
Warm oceans pose risk of global coral bleaching event in 2015.
Coral Reef Watch was featured in a NOAA press release:
Warm ocean temperatures may mean major coral bleaching.
NOAA CRW is pleased to announce the release of its new Daily
5-km Satellite Coral Bleaching Thermal Stress Monitoring Products (featuring new
Regional Virtual Stations and new color palettes) and Version 3 of our
Four-Month Coral Bleaching Thermal Stress Outlook.
We encourage users to look over the new products and color palettes and provide
feedback to us
(especially if you notice any 5-km images that are missing the new palettes). New products, color palettes, and web pages
will be updated over the coming months.
New CRW publications in Remote Sensing and the Journal of Operational Oceanography discuss improvements to CRW's global Decision Support System for coral
bleaching management to advance resource managers' and researchers' ability to monitor coral thermal stress in near-real-time.
CRW released new Regional Coral Bleaching Thermal
Stress Gauges using 5-km SST data for Florida, Hawaii, Eastern-NWHI, Western-NWHI, the Mariana Islands and Guam,
and the Northern Mariana Islands. Additional regions will be added as their Bleaching Thermal Stress Gauges are made available.
New CRW publications in Reef Encounter discuss
our new global 5 km coral bleaching thermal stress products and the
potential for a
significant El Niño event in 2014-2015.
Higher spatial resolution is the improvement to NOAA CRW products most requested by its primary users (coral reef
ecosystem managers and scientists). Today, CRW released an improved
Version 2 experimental daily global 5 km coral bleaching thermal stress monitoring product suite on the CRW web site. Version 2
products are based on NESDIS' operational daily global 5 km Geo-Polar Blended Nighttime-only sea surface temperature (SST) analysis,
released in March 2013, and use a new 5 km climatology (available since April 2014) developed from the
Pathfinder Version 5.2 daily 4 km SST.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch releases new ENSO bleaching patterns web page to help local resource managers and other coral reef ecosystem stakeholders prepare for a
potential significant El Niño event in 2014-2015. This web page will be updated regularly as the El Niño forecast changes.
Three new studies
discuss recent NOAA considerations of corals proposed for listing under the Endangered Species Act. One on how climate
change may lead to extinction of coral species, one on dealing with limited information, and one on how abundance may not help.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch and NOAA/NESDIS' Ocean Color Team are working closely with partners in the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force (USCRTF)
Watershed Working Group (WWG) to develop pilot satellite Ocean Color Products
to assist management of Land-Based Sources of Pollution over Coral Reefs.
Two new studies
discuss how climate change can lead to extinction of coral species and how abundance may not help.
New Google Earth tool
shares updated projections for coral bleaching and ocean acidification in all global
coral reef areas, based on an ensemble of climate models from the IPCC's Fifth Assessment
Report.
New study
compares how adaptive processes could affect coral bleaching through 2100.
New Coral Reef Watch Publications: NOAA/NESDIS Technical Reports
#142 and
#143. Coral Reef
Watch is pleased to announce the publication of two new technical reports in the
NOAA/NESDIS Technical Report Series.
NOAA Technical Report NESDIS 142,
a product development plan for next-generation remote sensing products, is designed to
assist the NOAA
Coral Reef Conservation Program in
identifying satellite remote sensing opportunities and planning for the application
of these technologies to coral reef management.
NOAA Technical Report NESDIS 143
provides an overview of Coral Reef Watch's operational twice-weekly 50-km satellite
coral bleaching thermal stress monitoring product suite, representing the program's
heritage product suite and the core of
Coral Reef Watch's Decision Support
System for coral bleaching management for much of the last decade.
New: Current atmospheric average monthly CO2 concentration measured at
the NOAA Mauna Loa Observatory
in Hawaii is now displayed as a widget on our home page
to remind everyone of the rise in heat-trapping gases in our atmosphere. Click on the
CO2 widget to see details.
New Release:
Satellite Coral Bleaching Light Stress Damage Product - Caribbean
New Release:
5 km Satellite Coral Bleaching Thermal Stress Monitoring Products.
New Release:
Probabilistic Seasonal Coral Bleaching Thermal Stress Outlook.
Wondering how to cite Coral Reef Watch products and methods in your publication?
Please see our new
citation recommendations.
We have expanded our Virtual Stations network. Thanks to suggestions
from our user community, we added 36 new stations. Several errors have also
been corrected. Finally, check out our new Virtual Stations
Google Maps interface.
NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program Technical Memo,
"Satellite Monitoring of Reef
Vulnerability in a Changing Climate" is now available for free download.
A new experimental product has been added. The Florida Keys
7-Day Bleaching Weather Forecast
combines National Weather Service marine forecasts for cloud cover and wind
speed into a weekly bleaching weather index.
A new article on the massive Caribbean bleaching in 2005, co-authored by CRW
scientists and many collaborators throughout the region, has been published in
the PLoS ONE journal. More details
in a NOAA press release and on
our publications page.
High thermal stress for bleaching is predicted to continue throughout
the southern Caribbean into early November. There is a chance for
future stress in the western Pacific Ocean including Palau and the
Federated States of Micronesia that may later propagate into eastern
Indonesia and northern Australia. See
current outlook.
Reef Resilience Webinar: Bleaching Outlook
with Dr. Mark Eakin of the NOAA Coral Reef Watch Program.
There is a high potential for bleaching throughout the Caribbean
and a potential of bleaching in the western Pacific Ocean including Guam,
the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, and the
Federated States of Micronesia. See
current outlook.
High potential for bleaching expected throughout the Caribbean and
in the northwestern Pacific Ocean including Guam, the Commonwealth
of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Federated States of
Micronesia. See
current outlook.
Thermal stress now causing bleaching in Indian Ocean and Southeast
Asia expected to subside. High potential for bleaching developing
in Caribbean and Marianas. See
current outlook.
NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program Technical Memo,
"Determining
Thermal Capacitance for Protected Area Network Design in
Palau," is now available.
A new report, co-authored by CRW scientists, details
the impacts of climate change in the Caribbean. The report was prepared
for the Copenhagen COP-15 conference, and can be downloaded from
our publications page.
CRW 2001-present monthly,
year-to-date, and annual composite products are now available.
The new experimental
enhanced 50km product suite provides data
up to the coastline, covering more than 99% of coral reef pixels. A
new climatology corrects some errors in the operational products.
Two new experimenal products have been added.
Light Stress Damage combines
light and temperature to predict coral bleaching stress.
Coral Disease Risk Maps pinpoint
regions where temperature conditions set up a risk of outbreaks.
Our
Bleaching Outlook indicates
that the potential for coral bleaching in the Caribbean in 2009 has lessened.
It appears unlikely that bleaching will be severe
along the Pacific coast of Mexico and islands in the equatorial
central Pacific Ocean either.
Our
Bleaching Outlook indicates a significant
potential for high thermal stress in the Caribbean in 2009, with concern
in the central Pacific and near Japan.
Our
Bleaching Outlook indicates a significant
potential for high thermal stress in the Caribbean in 2009, with low level stress
in the central Pacific and near Japan.
We are in the process of switching to a new website design. You will notice
gradual changes to some web pages as we make implement and test the new
design. Please be patient!
Our new twice-weekly satellite global Bleaching
Alert Area Product is now available.
We have released our new Ocean Acidification Product Suite for the Caribbean.
Graphs, data, maps, and animations are available from our
Experimental
Products page. See the
NOAA press release for more details.
Our
current Coral Bleaching
Outlook
(map and animation) has been updated to include a message about the potential
threat for bleaching around Australia, Papua-New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands.
We have expanded our network of Virtual Stations from 24 to 190 locations
worldwide. Graphs, data, and e-mail alerts are available from our
Experimental Products page.
See the
NOAA press release for more details.
Our current Coral Bleaching Outlook map and
animation are now available in the new version (V3.3) of our Google Earth
product suite. Please check out our
Google Earth product website for detail.
The NOAA Coral Reef Watch bleaching forecast system indicates that there will be
some bleaching across the Caribbean this year, especially in the Windward Islands.
Some bleaching is expected in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and in the western
Pacific from Papua-New Guinea to Japan. See the
experimental seasonal bleaching
outlook page for more details.
A new
NOAA coral
bleaching prediction system
indicates that there will be some bleaching in the Caribbean later this year,
but bleaching will probably not be severe. There is a potential for widespread
bleaching in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and some bleaching along the
western Pacific around Papua-New Guinea, the Philippines, and Japan.
See the
NOAA
press release or the
experimental seasonal
bleaching outlook page for more details.
The list of our Coral Bleaching Virtual Stations has expended from its original 24 reef
sites to 57 reef sites in our near-real-time Google
Earth Coral Bleaching Monitoring product.
17 coral scientists from 8 nations, including NOAA Coral Reef Watch coordinator Mark Eakin, say
corals could begin to disappear in 50 to 75 years due to warming temperatures
and increasing ocean acidification caused by carbon dioxide emissions. The
findings of the GEF/World Bank group were published as the cover story in the peer-reviewed journal Science.
See the
NOAA press release for more details.
Our Virtual Station network is expanding! Thirty-six new stations, from Aruba to Zanzibar, are now
available on the
experimental products page. Time series charts and data, regional images,
and Satellite Bleaching Alert e-mails are available for these experimental stations.
The
time series data
of CRW operational twice-weekly near-real-time
SST, SST anomaly, Bleaching HotSpot, and Bleaching Degree Heating
Weeks for 24 selected reef sites (CRW's virtual stations) around
the globe are now available.
The OPeNDAP service that serves
our HDF data
for direct network link from
CoastWatch software
tool (CDAT)
has not been available due to a technical problem.
The time of availability remains to be determined.
The HDF data are continuously available via our FTP and HTTP servers.
Our operational twice-weekly near-real-time satellite coral
bleaching monitoring products are now updated during the mornings (U.S.
Eastern Time) of every Monday and Thursday. Click
here to see detail.
Version 0.2
of experimental satellite Doldrums monitoring product is now available
