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Cited by 337Coral and Marine Ecosystems StudiesCoastal and Marine DynamicsCoastal and Marine Management

Reef-Scale Thermal Stress Monitoring of Coral Ecosystems: New 5-km Global Products from NOAA Coral Reef Watch

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Liu, Gang, Heron, Scott, Eakin, C., Muller-Karger, Frank, Vega-Rodriguez, Maria, Guild, Liane, De La Cour, Jacqueline, Geiger, Erick +9 more·2014·Remote Sensing
DOI 10.3390/rs61111579
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Abstract

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coral Reef Watch (CRW) program has developed a daily global 5-km product suite based on satellite observations to monitor thermal stress on coral reefs. These products fulfill requests from coral reef managers and researchers for higher resolution products by taking advantage of new satellites, sensors and algorithms. Improvements of the 5-km products over CRW’s heritage global 50-km products are derived from: (1) the higher resolution and greater data density of NOAA’s next-generation operational daily global 5-km geo-polar blended sea surface temperature (SST) analysis; and (2) implementation of a new SST climatology derived from the Pathfinder SST climate data record. The new products increase near-shore coverage and now allow direct monitoring of 95% of coral reefs and significantly reduce data gaps caused by cloud cover. The 5-km product suite includes SST Anomaly, Coral Bleaching HotSpots, Degree Heating Weeks and Bleaching Alert Area, matching existing CRW products. When compared with the 50-km products and in situ bleaching observations for 2013–2014, the 5-km products identified known thermal stress events and matched bleaching observations. These near reef-scale products significantly advance the ability of coral reef researchers and managers to monitor coral thermal stress in near-real-time.

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  • A study on the use of CCI analysis SSTs at coral reef locations near Florida and Belize found that the inferred coral-reef heat stress could differ from previous estimates.

    “A study on the use of CCI analysis SSTs at the locations of coral reefs near Florida and Belize found that the inferred coral-reef heat stress could differ from previous estimates59.”

    From Satellite-based time-series of sea-surface temperature since 1981 for climate applications (2019) · cites this paper as [59]

    Section 3.1.2 (p. 17) reports that the new 5-km products yielded different estimates of coral-reef thermal stress from the earlier 50-km products. The paper describes NOAA's blended SST analysis and Pathfinder climatology, not a CCI analysis of SSTs at reefs near Florida and Belize; those specifics are unsupported. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

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Cited by

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Authors
Liu, G., Heron, S., Eakin, C., Muller-Karger, F., Vega-Rodriguez, M., Guild, L., De La Cour, J., Geiger, E., Skirving, W., Burgess, T., Strong, A., Harris, A., Maturi, E., Ignatov, A., Sapper, J., Li, J., & Lynds, S.
Affiliations
  • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (US)
  • University of South Florida St. Petersburg (US)
  • Institute for Marine Remote Sensing, College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, FL 33701, USA
  • Ames Research Center (US)
  • Coral Reef Watch, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, College Park, MD 20740, USA
  • DigitalGlobe, Inc., Herndon, VA 20171, USA
  • Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (US)
Corresponding author
Liu, Gang
ORCID
Venue
Remote Sensing
Publisher
MDPI AG
Published
2014-11-20
Volume
6
Issue
11
Pages
11579-11606
ISSN
2072-4292 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3390/rs61111579
OpenAlex
W2044740668
Cited by
337
References
1
Citations by year
2026: 37 · 2025: 51 · 2024: 34 · 2023: 42 · 2022: 45 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 29 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 3
FWCI
8.10
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Remote Sensing (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • ResearchOnline at James Cook University (James Cook University) (submittedVersion)
  • Digital Commons - University of South Florida (University of South Florida) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Earth-Surface Processes › Coastal and Marine Dynamics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Coastal and Marine Management
Keywords
coral thermal stress, coral bleaching, sea surface temperature, sea surface temperature anomalies, degree heating weeks, near real-time monitoring, coral reef management

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