NOAA has been expanding their “virtual monitoring” network to keep an eye on factors that lead to coral reef bleaching, and now has 190 locations worldwide. Coral bleaching is caused by increasing sea surface temperatures. The sea surface temperatures are delivered via a satellite-based measurement from NOAA’s National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), and coupled with other remotely sensed data and analysis functions at NOAA headquarters, and then transmitted as an assessment to local reef managers on a twice-weekly rotation.
The system covers reefs in the Florida Keys, Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, Indian Ocean, Coral Triangle, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Hawaii, and the Pacific Ocean. These large-scale monitoring efforts allow for measurement on region-wide scales that supplement local and in-situ monitoring efforts.
The system feeds alerts to coral reef managers when there is elevated risk. The alerts are typically sent two weeks before the conditions become critical, in enough time to do something to reverse damage.
Visit the Coral Reef Watch site for a sample of products, and to view experimental monitoring products. There’s also a nice globe-based visualization and animation of this service here.
