NOAA Coral Reef Watch Version 3.1 Daily Global 5km Satellite Coral Bleaching Heat Stress Monitoring Product Suite

The NOAA Coral Reef Watch (CRW) daily global 5km (0.05 degree spatial resolution exactly) satellite coral bleaching heat stress monitoring product suite presented here is Version 3.1. Released August 1, 2018, the suite spans January 1, 1985 to the present and is based on CRW's CoralTemp Version 1.0 (https://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/satellite/coraltemp.php). (CoralTemp Version 1.0 is a satellite-derived daily global 5km sea surface temperature [SST] analysis dating to 1985, developed from a combination of NOAA/National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service’s [NESDIS’] operational daily global 5km Geostationary-Polar-orbiting [Geo-Polar] Blended Night-only SST Analysis; NESDIS’ 2002-2016 reprocessed daily global 5km Geo-Polar Blended Night-only SST Analysis; and the United Kingdom Met Office’s 1985-2002 daily global 5km night-only SST reanalysis on the Operational SST and Sea Ice Analysis [OSTIA].) A new climatology, introduced in CRW's Version 3.0 products and derived from CRW's CoralTemp Version 1.0 SST dataset, is maintained in the Version 3.1 5km product suite. The Version 3.1 products were developed based on user requests for a longer time series of comparable CRW 5km products, and to address errors identified in the operational daily global 5km Geo-Polar Blended Night-only SST Analysis for some coral reef regions during 2013-2016. Current daily global 5km products include SST, SST Anomaly, Coral Bleaching HotSpot, Degree Heating Week, a single-day Bleaching Alert Area, a 7-day maximum Bleaching Alert Area, and a 7-day SST Trend. CRW also developed year-to-date, monthly, and annual composites (maximum and, if applicable, mean and minimum) of the Version 3.1 5km products. CRW’s other well-used, daily 5km products, including CRW’s Regional Virtual Stations/Bleaching Heat Stress Gauges (https://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/vs/index.php) and a free, automated Bleaching Alert Email System (https://coralreefwatch-satops.noaa.gov/), will be updated shortly to utilize the Version 3.1 global products. The next-generation 5km products significantly advance CRW's capability for near real-time satellite coral bleaching heat stress monitoring, as compared with CRW’s heritage twice-weekly 50km global coral bleaching product suite. The 5km products now comprise the core of CRW's Decision Support System (DSS) for coral reef ecosystem management, providing service at or near reef-scales, allowing direct monitoring of 95% of global coral reefs and significantly reducing data gaps caused by cloud cover. They are expected to undergo continuous improvements. For more information on the evolution of CRW’s daily global 5km satellite coral bleaching heat stress product suites, visit https://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/product/5km/history_5km_products.php.