NOAA Coral Reef Watch Announcements

  • Oct 6, 2009:
    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.

  • Oct 6, 2009:
    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.

  • Sep 15, 2009:
    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.

  • Aug 20, 2009:
    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.

  • July 16, 2009:
    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.

  • June 29, 2009:
    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!

  • Apr 23, 2009:
    Our new twice-weekly satellite global Bleaching Alert Area Product is now available.

  • Dec 1, 2008:
    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.

  • Dec 1, 2008:
    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.

  • Oct 9, 2008:
    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.

  • Sept 2, 2008:
    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.

  • Aug 21, 2008:
    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.

  • Jul 10, 2008:
    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.

  • Feb 12, 2008:
    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.

  • December 13, 2007:
    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.

  • October 30, 2007:
    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.

  • June 12, 2007:
    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.

  • May 17, 2007:
    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.

  • May 3, 2007:
    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.

  • Apr 16, 2007:
    Version 0.2 of experimental satellite Doldrums monitoring product is now available