Coral Reef Watch:
Satellite Coral Bleaching Alerts
NOAA
Coral Reef Watch (CRW) released a new operational satellite warning
product for monitoring coral reef health in 2005. The Satellite Bleaching
Alert (SBA) system is an automated coral bleaching e-mail alert system
designed to monitor the status of thermal stress conducive to coral
bleaching via the use of the global satellite near-real-time Coral Reef
Watch product suite. Coral bleaching is an important problem plaguing
reefs around the world. Corals "bleach," or lose the algae that live in
their tissues, when exposed to severe stress, usually high ocean
temperatures. If severe enough, bleached corals will die, damaging the
entire ecosystem. The SBA
was developed by the NOAA CRW satellite team
as a tool for coral reef managers, scientists and other interested people.
This team includes STAR scientists and programmers and programmers in the
NESDIS Office of Satellite Data Processing & Distribution. The SBA became
officially operational on July 20, 2005. Currently, the alert messages are
available for 24 coral reefs around the world
(http://coralreefwatch-satops.noaa.gov/SBA.html).
 Figure (left). Bleaching alerts from Coral Reef
Watch website indicating alert status for two Caribbean reefs and a photo of
bleached Porites porites coral at Buck Island Reef National Monument,
US Virgin Islands (photo by the NOAA
NCCOS
Biogeography Team).
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Dept. of Commerce • NOAA • NESDIS • STAR • Last revised: June 15, 2010