Disclaimer and Recommendations for Citing and Providing Credit
to Coral Reef Watch for its Data, Products, Methodologies, and Algorithms

NOAA Coral Reef Watch (CRW) data posted on the internet are freely available to the public. All content on this website is considered to be in the public domain and may be distributed freely. We rely on the ethics and integrity of the user to ensure that the source of data and products is appropriately cited and credited. Credit and courtesy should be given to "NOAA Coral Reef Watch".

Recommendations for citing CRW data and products:
For publications, where a formal citation is desired and is deemed necessary (especially when CRW data are used in an analysis for producing results presented in a publication), CRW recommends that our data and products be cited like a book. The recommended key elements of the citation are, in order: Author(s), Publication Date, Title, Dates Used, Editor/Compiler, Place of Publication, Publisher, Distribution Medium or Location, and Access Date. Please see below, as well as the document Recommendations for Coral Reef Watch Data and Product Citation (produced April 2011), for additional information and examples of recommended citations.

5km-resolution products:
Sample 1: If time series data for the CRW Version 3.1 Daily 5km Satellite Regional Virtual Station at Southeast Florida are used for an analysis that leads to a publication, the data may be cited as:

NOAA Coral Reef Watch. 2019, updated daily. NOAA Coral Reef Watch Version 3.1 Daily 5km Satellite Regional Virtual Station Time Series Data for Southeast Florida, Mar. 12, 2013-Mar. 11, 2014. College Park, Maryland, USA: NOAA Coral Reef Watch. Data set accessed 2020-02-05 at https://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/product/vs/data.php.

Sample 2: If Version 3.1 Degree Heating Week NetCDF data are used for an analysis that leads to a publication, the data may be cited as:

NOAA Coral Reef Watch. 2018, updated daily. NOAA Coral Reef Watch Version 3.1 Daily Global 5km Satellite Coral Bleaching Degree Heating Week Product, Jun. 3, 2013-Jun. 2, 2014. College Park, Maryland, USA: NOAA Coral Reef Watch. Data set accessed 2020-09-01 at ftp://ftp.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/pub/sod/mecb/crw/data/5km/v3.1/nc/v1.0/daily/dhw/.


Recommendations for citing CRW methodologies and algorithms:
A formal citation is usually required in publications when previously published methods and/or algorithms are used and/or referred to in the work to be published. We recommend citing the following articles, which address the methodologies and algorithms that were used to produce CRW data and products. This list will grow over time as additional CRW products become available and more articles are published on CRW data and products. For further details on these articles or to view a more comprehensive list of CRW publications, please visit CRW's
publications web page.

1) Example publications that provide an overview of CRW's next-generation daily global 5km satellite Sea Surface Temperature (SST), SST Anomaly, Coral Bleaching HotSpot, and coral bleaching Degree Heating Week products:

Skirving, W; Marsh, B; De La Cour, J; Liu, G; Harris, A; Maturi, E; Geiger, E; Eakin, CM. CoralTemp and the Coral Reef Watch Coral Bleaching Heat Stress Product Suite Version 3.1. Remote Sens. 2020, 12, 3856; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12233856.
      ---  Free download from the publisher.

Liu, G, Skirving WJ, Geiger EF, De La Cour JL, Marsh BL, Heron SF, Tirak KV, Strong AE, Eakin CM (2017) NOAA Coral Reef Watch's 5km Satellite Coral Bleaching Heat Stress Monitoring Product Suite Version 3 and Four-Month Outlook Version 4. Reef Encounter 45 32(1): 39-45.
     ---  Free download.


2) Article that introduces CRW's Thermal History products:

Heron, SF, Maynard J, van Hooidonk R, Eakin CM (2016). Warming Trends and Bleaching Stress of the World's Coral Reefs 1985-2012. Scientific Reports 6: 38402, doi:10.1038/srep38402.
     ---  Free download from the publisher.


3) Article that introduces CRW's Coral Disease Outbreak Risk products for the Great Barrier Reef (Australia) and Hawaii:

Heron S.F., B.L. Willis, W.J. Skirving, C.M. Eakin, C.A. Page, I.R. Miller (2010). Summer Hot Snaps and Winter Conditions: Modelling White Syndrome Outbreaks on Great Barrier Reef Corals. PLoS One.
     ---  Free download from the publisher.


4) Example publications that provide an overview of CRW's Climate Forecast System (CFS)-based probabilistic weekly Four-Month Coral Bleaching Outlook product:

Liu, G, Eakin CM, Chen M, Kumar A, De La Cour JL, Heron SF, Geiger EF, Skirving WJ, Tirak KV, Strong AE (2018) Predicting Heat Stress to Inform Reef Management: NOAA Coral Reef Watch's 4-Month Coral Bleaching Outlook. Front. Mar. Sci. 5:57.
doi: 10.3389/fmars.2018.00057.
     ---  Free download from the publisher.

Liu, G, Skirving WJ, Geiger EF, De La Cour JL, Marsh BL, Heron SF, Tirak KV, Strong AE, Eakin CM (2017) NOAA Coral Reef Watch's 5km Satellite Coral Bleaching Heat Stress Monitoring Product Suite Version 3 and Four-Month Outlook Version 4. Reef Encounter 45 32(1): 39-45.
     ---  Free download.

Coral Reef Watch Publications web page

For a list of related publications that have used Coral Reef Watch data and products, click here.


If you have any question regarding these citations, please contact us at coralreefwatch@noaa.gov.