NOAA NCCOS Products
The Harmful Algal Bloom - Forecasting Branch (HAB-FB) is a research group within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) tasked with forecasting and monitoring HABs. One of the more effective ways to do so is through satellite based monitoring, which provides a synoptic view at high temporal resolution. The HAB-FB has established a routine and automated processing capability for satellite-derived products pertaining to the color of water. Water color can be used as proxy for various geophysical parameters, such as chlorophyll-a, turbidity, and water depth.
All of our products are generated from mapped reflectance products, which we refer to as "level 3" products:
- True Color: a Red, Green, Blue (RGB) composite image.
- Chlorophyll-a: chlorophyll-a concentration product determined by a near-Infrared to red ratio as described by Gilerson et al. (2010) in coastal regions, with an additional switch to a low Chla algorithm (OC4) below 10 ug/L.
- Cyanobacteria Index: the relative abundance of cyanobacteria biomass as determined by the cyanobacteria index algorithm developed by Wynne et al. (2008).
- Low fluorescing Algae: the relative abundance of phytoplankton which are low or non-fluorescing and do not contain phycocyanin (non-cyanobacteria).
- Relative Fluorescence: the relative chlorophyll fluorescence representative of chlorophyll concentration for high biomass blooms, determined by the Red-Band Difference developed by Amin et al. (2009).
- Maximum Chlorophyll Index (MCI): The Maximum Chlorophyll Index (MCI) detects high biomass blooms and shows relative density patches of Chl-a, as developed by Gower et al. (1999, 2005).
Note: Sentinel-2 MSI imagery does not have a cloud mask applied at this time. Please consult the true color, as black pixels may indicate clouds or no bloom. For more information about our bloom monitoring imagery and access to imagery for other regions refer to the NCCOS products website.