First Year's Report on Noaa's New Interactive'HOTSOT' Website for Coral Reef Bleaching

摘要

In January 1997, NOAA/NESDIS's Oceanic Research & Applications Division began an interactive WebSite to help coral reef scientists monitor bleaching. Coral reef "HotSpots" (Goreau and Hayes, 1994 and Strong et al. 1996) are defined as regions where sea surface temperatures equal or exceed the annual monthly maximum climatological value by 1 deg C. Based on maximum SSTs from satellite data for the period 1984-1993, a special"threshold chart" has been used as a comparison during 1997 and into 1998 for the production of HotSport charts that are intended to show areas of "potential" coral reef bleaching. These charts have a 50-km resolution grid throughout all tropical areas.