Satellites & Bleaching Introduction
Welcome    |    About Coral Reef Watch

This 2005 NOAA satellite image shows Hurricane Wilma off the coast of Florida.

NOAA is part of the U.S. Government, housed within the Department of Commerce. Part of NOAA's responsibility is to operate environmental satellites that observe terrestrial, atmospheric, and oceanic conditions on Earth and manage the data that these satellites produce. For instance, most of the satellite images you see in weather forecasts come from NOAA satellite systems. NOAA Coral Reef Watch (CRW) is a research and monitoring program within the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service's Center for Satellite Applications and Research that uses satellite observations to monitor and help protect the world's coral reef resources.

CRW is only one of the coral reef activities that NOAA undertakes. All of these activities are coordinated under the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program. In addition, there are many other U.S. governmental bodies that care for the nation's coral reefs. All of the state, territory, and national governments with coral reef responsibilities are coordinated through the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force.

CRW developed this tutorial with financial support from NOAA and from the Coral Reef Targeted Research (CRTR) Program. The CRTR Program is a partnership between the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the World Bank, The University of Queensland (Australia), NOAA, and approximately 40 research institutes and other third parties around the world. This tutorial began as a series of capacity building workshops funded under the CRTR Program, presented to coral reef managers at key reef sites around the world.

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