Stories
NOAA researchers review approaches to satellite-derived coastal water quality products
Updated: October 16, 2019
| In a paper published in 2017 in Progress in Oceanography, coauthors Guanming Zheng and Paul M. DiGiacomo reviewed approaches to deriving water quality products from satellite ocean color data. They quantify and discuss the inherent uncertainties surrounding the characterization of water quality parameters of interest in coastal waters ... |
Booklet: Advanced techniques for monitoring water quality using Earth Observation
Updated: October 16, 2019
| AquaWatch, the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Water Quality Initiative, presents information about water quality issues and monitoring in a variety of habitats and exemplars of water quality monitoring using archived and next generation Earth Observation data using technologies developed and exploited by researchers within the AquaWatch community. |
Colors and Confusion: Making Better Color Choices for Data Visualization
Updated: September 23, 2021
| Communication of scientific information and data to the public is part of NOAA’s mission, and scientific visualization is often the public’s first encounter with the agency’s data. This post gives an overview of recent advances and considerations for selecting and improving color selection for remote sensing data. NOAA CoastWatch will be experimenting with different colors for its data presentations. |
Student Spotlight: Zachary Paolillo
Updated: September 23, 2021
| Graduate assistant Zachary Paolillo worked to support NOAA CoastWatch communications efforts. During his time at NOAA, Zach worked on producing outreach and training materials including compiling examples of how NOAA CoastWatch data are used and a tutorial for analyzing satellite data with ArcGIS. |
Monitoring Sea Surface Winds and Sea Ice with Satellite Radar
Updated: September 23, 2021
| Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an active radar satellite instrument that transmits microwave pulses that bounce off the Earth’s surface. The radar signals are then processed into imagery that can be used to derive several geographic and non-geographic features including: wind speeds, oil spills, sea ice and ship detection. |
Temperature Climate Indicators of Estuaries
Updated: July 11, 2019
| The National Estuary Program identifies, protects, and conserves water quality for ecologically significant estuaries and surrounding watersheds. The National Estuary Program uses Sea Surface Temperature time series products produced by the NOAA CoastWatch East Coast Node for estuary management. |
Saharan Dust and its Impacts
Updated: September 23, 2021
| Winds blowing across the Sahara Desert send large clouds of dust that travel thousands of miles to the Atlantic Ocean or Mediterranean Sea. The growth of phytoplankton, microscopic plants at the base of the ocean food chain, is restricted by iron availability. When Saharan dust is blown into the ocean, phytoplankton use the iron and nutrients from the dust and begin to grow and reproduce. |
Tropical Cyclone Heat Potential
Updated: March 20, 2019
| NOAA's Atlantic Oceanography & Meterological Laboratory produces a Tropical Cyclone Heat Potential (TCHP) product represents a robust measure of how much energy is available in the ocean to sustain or modify the intensity of tropical cyclones.The NOAA CoastWatch Geo-Polar Blended surface sea temperature product and sea surface height data are used to produce global daily TCHP fields. |
Ice Breaking Operations and Shipping in the Great Lakes
Updated: March 20, 2019
| In order to understand ice formation and the types of ice in the Great Lakes, the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) and the U.S. Coast Guard use Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data from the NOAA CoastWatch Great Lakes Node to monitor six different types of ice, ice thickness, and ice cover. |
Great Lakes Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook
Updated: March 20, 2019
| U.S. and Canadian Great Lakes agencies work together to document significant quarterly events, seasonal and yearly changes for the Great Lakes region and compile them into quarterly reports. NOAA Great Lakes CoastWatch data used in these bulletins includes Sea Surface Temperature, Synthetic Aperture Radar and real time marine data from buoys, coastal met stations, airports, and ships. |
Student Spotlight: India Oliver
Updated: September 23, 2021
| This summer, NOAA CoastWatch/OceanWatch/PolarWatch hosted undergraduate summer intern, India Oliver, as part of an undergraduate scholarship program run through NOAA’s Educational Partnership Program with Minority Serving Institutions. |
EcoCast: A tool to help fishers minimize bycatch off the US West Coast
Updated: February 15, 2019
| The EcoCast tool uses habitat suitability models and satellite-derived environmental data to predict where broadbill swoardfish and three bycatch species (leatherback turtle, blue shark and California sea lion) are likely to be each day. Daily EcoCast maps help fishers identify fishing spots minimize fisheries bycatch and maximize fisheries target catch. |
NOAA Ocean Satellite Data Courses
Updated: August 29, 2019
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The NOAA CoastWatch West Coast Regional Node and the Southwest Fisheries Science Center’s Environmental Research Division have been offering a three-day NOAA Ocean Satellite Data Course annually since 2006. |
Identifying Climate-Driven Shifts in Jumbo Flying Squid Fishing Grounds
Updated: February 15, 2019
| The jumbo flying squid (Dosidicus gigas), also known as the Humbolt squid, is an economically important fisheries species in the Eastern Pacific, currently accounting for approximately one third of the world's squid landings. Sea surface temperature and sea surface height data from NOAA OceanWatch Central Pacific node was used to research movements of their fishing ground. |
Improving Satellite Sea Surface Temperature Analysis
Updated: September 23, 2021
| Information about sea surface temperature is important for weather and ocean forecasting, climate monitoring, military and defense operations, ecosystem assessment, fisheries analyses and tourism operations. NOAA's Sea Surface Temperature Team is working to improve their products by reanalyzing past data with NOAA's Advanced Clear-Sky Processor for Oceans (ACSPO) using the enterprise algorithm. |
Detecting Sea Level Anomalies with Satellites
Updated: September 23, 2021
| By studying sea level anomalies, scientists can improve understanding of ocean circulation patterns and improve forecasts of climatological events such as El Niño and La Niña. The NOAA Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry produces daily near-real time global sea level anomaly datasets from a constellation of radar altimeter missions. |
A Satellite's View of Coastal Erosion
Updated: September 23, 2021
| One expected impact of climate change is an increase in the frequency and severity of storms in the eastern United States. As such, many coastal communities and ecosystems are increasingly vulnerable to the detrimental impacts of coastal erosion. The CoastWatch East Coast node monitors coastal erosion by tracking in-water sediment values. |
The Tongue of the Ocean
Updated: September 23, 2021
| The Tongue of the Ocean is a deep water basin in the Bahamas that is surrounded to the east, west and south by a carbonate bank known as the Great Bahama Bank. The deep blue water of the Tongue is a stark contrast to the shallow turquoise waters of the surrounding Bank. |
Ocean acidification in the Caribbean
Updated: September 23, 2021
| In collaboration with the NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory's Ocean Chemistry and Ecosystems Division and NOAA Coral Reef Watch, the Caribbean/Gulf of Mexico node of CoastWatch produces an ocean acidification product suite for the greater Caribbean region to track changes in the surface ocean that can be used as an important tool in coral reef research and management. |
Harmful Algal Bloom Monitoring and Forecasting in the Gulf of Mexico
Updated: February 15, 2019
Juvenile Salmon Shark Habitat Use Research
Updated: February 15, 2019
| Standings of small juvenile salmon sharks have been reported between British Columbia, Canada and northern Baja California. A recent study used CoastWatch sea surface temperature data from the west coast regional node to explore the link between salmon shark strandings and water temperature. |
TurtleWatch: A Tool for Reducing Loggerhead Turtle Bycatch
Updated: February 15, 2019
| Fisheries bycatch has been implicated as a contributing factor in the population decline of endangered Pacific loggerhead turtles. In order to reduce interactions between longline fishing vessels based in Hawaii and loggerhead sea turtles, the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center created an experimental information product called TurtleWatch. |
The Gulf of Mexico Loop Current
Updated: September 23, 2021
| The Gulf of Mexico loop current brings warm Caribbean water northward between the Yucatan Peninsula and Cuba and into the Gulf. The current loops around the Gulf, flows southeastward into the Florida Strait where it serves as a parent to the Florida current and ultimately joins the Gulf Stream. |
Modeling Circulation in the Gulf of Maine
Updated: February 15, 2019
| Researchers at North Carolina State University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic institute tested the effectiveness of assimilating temperature and salinity data into a Gulf of Maine model. Data assimilated into the model included the NOAA CoastWatch blended sea surface temperature product and in situ temperature and salinity profiles. |