Satellites & Bleaching SST Product
Sea Surface Temperature Product  |  Time Series Graphs

This chart shows an example of our sea surface temperature product. Click the image for more information and a larger view of the latest data.

The main SST product is quite straightforward: it shows the present ocean temperature around the world. The data come from the AVHRR sensor on NOAA’s polar-orbiting satellites. We use only nighttime data, to avoid the solar heating of the near-surface skin interface during the day.

The temperature scale is shown along the bottom of the image, and goes from -2 to 34 degrees C. Areas covered by sea ice are colored white and land is colored black. The ice coverage is also measured from NOAA satellites.

The spatial resolution of the data is one-half degree. That means that the data are shown in “pixels” (picture elements) which are approximately 50 kilometers (~30 miles) on each side. This is obviously a larger scale than most coral reefs. However, our products are designed to detect large scale changes in the ocean that cause mass bleaching. This occurs at the same scale as weather patterns. Think about it this way: you can be pretty sure that the air temperature 50 km away from your house will be about the same as outside your home. It is even more true about ocean temperatures, because the SST changes more slowly than the weather.

You can see near-real-time images of global SST on the Coral Reef Watch website. We also produce animations of the data, over the last 2 to 6 months.

Try our hands-on SST exercises to learn more about this product.

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