Fisheries & Aquaculture

NOAA Operational ACSPO SST L3S Day/Night AM/PM product suite

michael.soracco — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 17:06:27 +0000

NOAA Operational ACSPO SST L3S Day/Night AM/PM product suite michael.soracco Tue, 10/01/2024 - 13:06

Date

October 1, 2024

Category

Announcement

Author(s)

msoracco

Data Applications

Climate & Weather

Ecosystem Monitoring

Fisheries & Aquaculture

Ocean & Coastal Dynamics

Transportation & Safety

Water Quality

NOAA CoastWatch has added the operational SST L3S Day/Night AM/PM product suite to HTTPS distribution:

https://coastwatch.noaa.gov/data/pub0053/coastwatch/sst/l3s/

The morning/afternoon orbit, day and night SST L3S products are now produced by the Office of Satellite and Product Operations. Products are mirrored daily and have increased reliability. Fifteen (15) days of operational near real-time data are available in this directory. Note, the L3S Daily product is not currently produced by OSPO. A transition from research (STAR) to operational (OSPO) processing is expected to begin at the end of 2024.

At present the L3S produced within OSPO uses ACSPO version 2.8x. Sea surface temperature data differences with the STAR produced L3S (ACSPO v 2.8x+) are considered negligible.

New experimental mesoscale eddy products

michael.soracco — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 12:26:27 +0000

New experimental mesoscale eddy products michael.soracco Tue, 09/03/2024 - 08:26

Date

September 3, 2024

Category

Announcement

Author(s)

msoracco

Data Applications

Climate & Weather

Ecosystem Monitoring

Fisheries & Aquaculture

Ocean & Coastal Dynamics

Transportation & Safety

The sea surface height team in NOAA’s Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry developed two experimental mesoscale eddy products:

Multiparameter Eddy Significance Index (MESI)
MUltiparameter NRT System for Tracking Eddies Retroactively (MUNSTER)

MESI serves as a first look indicator of the potential impact a given mesoscale eddy may have on upper ocean dynamics, with potential implications for nutrient cycling, mixed layer dynamics, and fisheries. The MUNSTER suite of eddy tracking products provides analyzed mesoscale eddy properties, contours, and trajectories based on NOAA RADS gridded altimetry and includes analysis calculated from altimetry, SST, SSS, and chlorophyll-a from ocean color. MUNSTER is a threshold free product suite, with no limitations imposed on eddy lifetime or amplitude, and includes a wide variety of analyzed variables, including MESI. The MUNSTER mesoscale eddy product suite has a wide variety of applications across oceanography, including coral reef resilience monitoring, studies of air-sea interactions, harmful algal blooms, coral reef larva dispersion, and fisheries management, among many others.

NOAA CoastWatch has processed a limited number of products that are available for comment through September 30, 2024. Collected feedback and additional enhancements (metadata) will be implemented prior to making a data asset spanning August 2019 to present. Please visit https://coastwatch.noaa.gov/cwn/products/experimental-eddy-products.html to explore these data products and submit feedback to coastwatch.info@noaa.gov.

Hardware issues result in inaccessible data

michael.soracco — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 12:34:22 +0000

Hardware issues result in inaccessible data michael.soracco Mon, 08/26/2024 - 08:34

Date

August 26, 2024

Category

Announcement

Author(s)

M Soracco

Data Applications

Climate & Weather

Ecosystem Monitoring

Fisheries & Aquaculture

Ocean & Coastal Dynamics

Transportation & Safety

Water Quality

Update (20240826 - 1600Z) : Data access has been restored.

Over the weekend (24 August 2024) a hardware issue resurfaced causing a '403 Forbidden' error to be given by the webserver when attempting to access select data.

Data affected include:

ACSPO SST L3S [including L2P and L3U],
Blended Geo-Polar 5km SST,
VIIRS Level-2 Ocean Color data,
Chlorophyll-a DINEOF,
VIIRS Science Quality Data - Daily, Weekly, Monthly
Altimetry [rads] Sea Level Anomaly,
Geostrophic currents,
East Coast Node SST,
Blended Winds (6hr, Daily)
Sentinel-2 MSI L1C data
Ocean Heat Content

Data paths affected include those containing 'pub0010 or socd1', 'pub0012 or socd2', 'pub0014 or socd4', and 'pub0015 or socd5.' Work is underway to resolve the issue. At this point the status of data recovery has not been assessed.

Sea surface temperature processing issues

michael.soracco — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 16:14:37 +0000

Sea surface temperature processing issues michael.soracco Thu, 08/15/2024 - 12:14

Date

August 15, 2024

Category

Announcement

Author(s)

msoracco

Data Applications

Climate & Weather

Ecosystem Monitoring

Fisheries & Aquaculture

Ocean & Coastal Dynamics

Transportation & Safety

Water Quality

Sea surface temperature processing of ACSPO FRAC L2P/L3U and L3S products has been suspended due to ongoing maintenance beginning August 12, 2024. We are hopeful processing is restored today (August 15, 2024) and expect L2P/L3U products to catch-up within 10 hours and L3S in about 24 hours. The global 2km low earth orbit (LEO) Level-3 Supercollated (L3S) product is expected to become operational (24hour-by-7day support) within NOAA NESDIS later this month.

Upcoming ACSPO SST Filename change

michael.soracco — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 14:17:12 +0000

Upcoming ACSPO SST Filename change michael.soracco Tue, 09/12/2023 - 10:17

Date

September 12, 2023

Category

Announcement

Author(s)

msoracco

Data Applications

Climate & Weather

Ecosystem Monitoring

Fisheries & Aquaculture

Ocean & Coastal Dynamics

Transportation & Safety

Water Quality

The NOAA Advanced Clear-Sky Processor for Ocean (ACSPO) L3S-LEO-PM and L3S-LEO-DY products will be updated from ACSPO v2.80 to ACSPO v2.81 on October 2, 2023.

The updates from V2.80 are:

N21 VIIRS has been added to L3S-LEO-PM. Now it includes 3 VIIRS sensors from NPP, N20 and N21
The L3S-LEO-PM daytime SST has been de-trended to fix a ~0.15 K negative drift in bias over the past decade or so.
Aqua MODIS SST has been included in L3S-LEO-PM. This update extends the L3S-LEO-PM dataset back to 4 Jul 2002 when the first Aqua SST became available. Due to current drift of the Aqua satellite orbit, Aqua SST is not included in L3S-LEO-PM after 31 Dec 2022.
Aqua and Terra MODIS SSTs have been both included in L3S-LEO-DY. This extends the L3S-LEO-DY dataset back to 24 Feb 2000, when the first Terra SST became available. Due to current drift of the Terra satellite orbit, Terra SST is not included in L3S-LEO-DY after Dec 31 2021.

Routine users will need to plan for the change in filenames where the version number will change from v2.80 to v2.81.

For example:

from: 20230911120000-STAR-L3S_GHRSST-SSTsubskin-LEO_PM_N-ACSPO_V2.80-v02.0-fv01.0.nc
to: 20230911120000-STAR-L3S_GHRSST-SSTsubskin-LEO_PM_N-ACSPO_V2.81-v02.0-fv01.0nc

Currently the V2.81 NRT data are pushed to
[links invalid after publishing date]
https://coastwatch.noaa.gov/pub/socd2/coastwatch/sst/nrt/l3s/leo/pm_v2…
https://coastwatch.noaa.gov/pub/socd2/coastwatch/sst/nrt/l3s/leo/daily_…

and reprocessed data are pushed to
[links invalid after publishing date]
https://coastwatch.noaa.gov/pub/socd2/coastwatch/sst/ran/l3s/leo/pm_v2…
https://coastwatch.noaa.gov/pub/socd2/coastwatch/sst/ran/l3s/leo/daily_…

We plan to promote V2.81 data on October 2, 2023 to replace the "live" data flow at

https://coastwatch.noaa.gov/pub/socd2/coastwatch/sst/nrt/l3s/leo/pm/
https://coastwatch.noaa.gov/pub/socd2/coastwatch/sst/nrt/l3s/leo/daily/

NOAA-21 reaches Provisional Maturity for SST

michael.soracco — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 13:26:47 +0000

NOAA-21 reaches Provisional Maturity for SST michael.soracco Tue, 09/12/2023 - 09:26

Date

September 12, 2023

Category

Announcement

Author(s)

msoracco

Data Applications

Climate & Weather

Ecosystem Monitoring

Fisheries & Aquaculture

Ocean & Coastal Dynamics

Transportation & Safety

Water Quality

The Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) has approved NOAA-21 Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Advanced Clear Sky Processor for Ocean (ACSPO) sea surface temperature (SST) products for Provisional Maturity. This means the product is ready for operational use though incremental improvements and validation will continue as the product moves to Full/Validated Maturity. Learn more about maturity levels

Congratulations to the NOAA Satellites STAR SST Team on reaching this milestone. Explore these products on the CoastWatch SST webpages and services.

C-HARM: Predicting Harmful Algal Blooms with Satellite Data

v.wegman — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 20:41:44 +0000

C-HARM: Predicting Harmful Algal Blooms with Satellite Data v.wegman Thu, 01/12/2023 - 15:41

Date

March 14, 2023

Category

User Story

Data Applications

Ecosystem Monitoring

Fisheries & Aquaculture

Transportation & Safety

Water Quality

The West Coast Node (WCN) of CoastWatch is home to thousands of datasets; from ACSPO SST to Vector Winds, their ERDDAP server stores decades of historic climate data. But one group of products stands out with its impact on the coastal communities of California and Southern Oregon: C-HARM.

What is C-HARM?

The California-Harmful Algae Risk Mapping (C-HARM) Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) products predict the occurrences of harmful species of Pseudo-nitzschia and the toxin they produce, domoic acid, using sophisticated circulation models, satellite remote-sensing data, and statistical models. More information regarding the methodology can be found in Anderson et al. 2016. Note that the current version of C-HARM, v3, integrates the West Coast Operational Forecast System (WCOFS).

In layman's terms, C-HARM products are forecasts of toxin levels and Pseudo-nitzschia in coastal waters, developed by applying data from ocean physics models and ocean color satellites to algae probability models. The resulting information can be mapped to create images as shown below, which represent the probability of high levels of Pseudo-nitzchia (left) and cellular domoic acid (right) on February 23, 2023, as predicted three days in advance. Products are also available as one- and two-day forecasts, and as a Nowcast.

What are Pseudo-nitzschia and Domoic Acid?

Pseudo-nitzschia is a common genus of microscopic marine algae, or phytoplankton, of which some species produce a neurotoxin, domoic acid. When these phytoplankton “bloom,” or grow to a population of 10,000 cells per liter of seawater, the resident shellfish are likely to consume Pseudo-nitzschia, and with it, domoic acid.

There are two common measurements for domoic acid (DA): particulate DA and cellular DA. Particulate DA models, or Domoic Acid Event Prediction, predict the concentration of DA in the bloom. The bloom is considered a HAB when there are at least 500 nanograms of domoic acid per liter of affected water. Toxicity is still possible at a lower concentration, but this threshold has been established through multiple studies. C-HARM products predict the percent probability of the bloom reaching this threshold. Cellular DA models, or Domoic Acid Toxicity Prediction, are a forecast measurement for the amount of DA per individual cell of Pseudo-nitzschia (a single-cellular algae as shown above). The threshold for a toxic cell is 10 picograms of domoic acid per cell, which has been established through the same research as the particulate DA threshold. C-HARM products predict the percent probability of the Pseudo-nitzschia containing 10 picograms.

Is Domoic Acid bad?

Domoic acid can build up in shellfish that consume Pseudo-nitzschia without visibly harming them. However, people and animals that eat the toxin-containing shellfish can develop serious illnesses resulting from Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning (ASP). Symptoms can appear as early as 15 minutes after eating shellfish, or even 40 hours later. The most common reactions are typical of food poisoning: vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, etc. that can last several days. Severe cases may result in permanent short-term memory loss, hence the term “Amnesic” Shellfish Poisoning. There is no antidote for domoic acid; treatment is largely limited to hydration maintenance and pain management.

How can consumers avoid Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning?

It is impossible to determine whether a specimen is contaminated without laboratory testing, and domoic acid cannot be eliminated once it has been absorbed into tissue. Cooking or freezing shellfish before eating will not prevent toxication. Therefore, for consumers to continue enjoying California’s coastal critters, it is necessary to avoid shellfish that have been exposed to Pseudo-nitzschia.

How does C-HARM help?

Pseudo-nitzschia blooms and the neurotoxin they produce can be accurately predicted days in advance using forecast models paired with satellite data. C-HARM does just that; by avoiding areas deemed unsafe by C-HARM, consumers are far less likely to contract ASP. Note: Even if shellfish are from a low-risk area, the likelihood of poisoning is never zero.

Domoic acid has become the top issue for the U.S. West Coast. One particularly severe event began in mid-August 2022 in Ventura, and spread along the coast of Southern California over a few weeks. Over 400 sea lions and seals were found stranded with apparent poisoning. C-HARM was used daily to track the bloom and alert necessary response teams, such as the West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network. While the report has yet to be published, Clarissa Anderson - Director of the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System (SCCOOS) and lead developer of C-HARM - says officials studying the impact of this bloom measured the highest ever DA levels in animal tissue.

The frequency of impact events has only grown in the past 25 years. The ability to accurately predict toxic blooms is crucial for local fisheries, aquaculture, and marine mammal rescue groups to mitigate harm and more effectively manage coastal resources. In its first five years of availability, C-HARM has become a daily necessity for several key sectors.

C-HARM products are available through the CoastWatch West Coast Node ERDDAP, found here.

TurtleWatch: A Tool for Reducing Loggerhead Turtle Bycatch

jebidiah.jeffery — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 21:29:17 +0000

TurtleWatch: A Tool for Reducing Loggerhead Turtle Bycatch jebidiah.jeffery Thu, 12/15/2022 - 16:29

Date

February 15, 2019

Category

User Story

Data Applications

Fisheries & Aquaculture

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.

A loggerhead turtle encountered by NOAA's Longline Observer Program. Image courtesy of NOAA Fisheries Pacific Islands Regional Office.

TurtleWatch provides fishers with information on the predicted location of water in the turtles' preferred temperature range (water cooler than 65.5°F and warmer than 63.5°F). Predicted temperatures for the product are calculated using sea surface temperature data and derived ocean current vectors from the OceanWatch Central Pacific node.

The TurtleWatch product is a map showing the predicted location of the loggerhead sea turtle's preferred temperature habitat. Fishers are advised to fish in areas either warmer 65.5°F or cooler than 63.5°F. Grey arrows indicate the direction and strength of the average ocean currents over the most recent week of available data. Solid black lines mark the 63.5°F and 65.5°F temperature contours. The red area between these lines represents the region where more than 50% of loggerhead turtle interactions have occurred during the first quarter of the year.

References and Related Reading

Hatase, H., K. Goto, K. Sato, T. Bando, and Y. Matsuzawa. 2002. Using annual body size fluctuations to explore potential causes for the decline in a nesting population of the loggerhead turtle Caretta caretta at Senri Beach, Japan. Marine Ecology Progress Series 245:299-304.
Hays, G.C., A.C. Broderick, B.J. Godley, P. Luschi, and W.J. Nichols. 2003. Satellite telemetry suggests high levels of fishing induced mortality in marine turtles. Marine Ecology Progress Series 262:305-309.
Howell, E.A., A. Hooever, S.R. Benson, H. Bailey, J.J. Polovina, J.A. Seminoff, and P.H. Dutton. 2015. Enhancing the TurtleWatch product for leatherback sea turtles, a dynamic habitat model for ecosystem-based management. Fisheries Oceanography 24(1): 57-68.
Howell, E.A., D.R. Kobayashi, D.M. Parker, G.H. Balazs, and J.J. Polovina. 2008. TurtleWatch: a tool to aid the bycatch reduction of loggerhead turtles Caretta caretta in the Hawaii-based pelagic longline fishery. Endangered Species Research 5: 267-278.
Peckham, S., D. Diaz, A. Walli, G. Ruiz, L. Crowder, and W. Nicholas. 2007. Small-scale fisheries bycatch jeopardizes endangered Pacific loggerhead turtles. PLoS One 10:e1401.

Ocean acidification in the Caribbean

jebidiah.jeffery — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 20:50:34 +0000

Ocean acidification in the Caribbean jebidiah.jeffery Thu, 12/15/2022 - 15:50

Date

September 23, 2021

Category

User Story

Data Applications

Climate & Weather

Ecosystem Monitoring

Fisheries & Aquaculture

Water Quality

Anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) have increased dramatically since the Industrial Revolution. The oceans absorb approximately one third of this carbon dioxide. When CO2 is absorbed by seawater, chemical reactions occur that reduce the pH (increase the acidity). "Ocean acidification" refers to this lowering of ocean pH. Among other issues, ocean acidification makes it difficult for calcifying animals, such as corals and shellfish, to grow and thrive. This occurs because sea water at a lower pH has a reduced availability of the carbonate minerals (calcite, aragonite and high-magnesium calcites) these animals use to construct their shells and skeletons.

Coral reefs provide immense ecological and economic benefits to the Caribbean region.

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 America 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.

The suite of ocean acidification products produced by the CoastWatch Caribbean/Gulf of America node and Coral Reef Watch. Products include SST, SSS, pCO2a, pCO2w, Alk, pH, Ωarg and Ωcal. Source: CoastWatch Caribbean/Gulf of America node.

References and Related Reading

Wang, W. and R., Ramakrishna. 2016. Dynamic responses of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration to global temperature changes between 1850 and 2010. Advances in Atmospheric Sciences 33(2): 247-3314.
Glendhill, D.K., R. Wanninkhof, F.J. Millero, and M. Eakin. Ocean acidification of the Greater Caribbean Region 1996-2006. 2008. Journal of Geophysical Research 113: C10031.
Burke, L. and J. Maidens. 2004. Reefs at Risk in the Caribbean. World Resources Institute, Washington, DC.
Sabine, C.L., R.A. Feely, N. Gruber, R.M., Key, K. Lee, J.L. Bullister, R. Wanninkhof, C.S. Wang, D.W.R. Wallace, B. Tilbrook, F.J. Millero, T.H. Peng, A. Kozyr, T. Ono, and A.F. Rios. 2004. Science 305(5682): 367-371.

Detecting Sea Level Anomalies with Satellites

jebidiah.jeffery — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 17:38:25 +0000

Detecting Sea Level Anomalies with Satellites jebidiah.jeffery Thu, 12/15/2022 - 12:38

Date

September 23, 2021

Category

User Story

Data Applications

Climate & Weather

Ecosystem Monitoring

Fisheries & Aquaculture

Ocean & Coastal Dynamics

The sea surface is a dynamic mixture of bumps and dips resulting from a variety of factors including gravity, ocean currents and the rotation of the Earth. Scientists study variations in sea surface height using radar altimeters on satellites. These altimeters emit radar pulses that bounce off the ocean’s surface and are detected by a sensor on the satellite when they return. Sea surface height derived from satellite altimeters is accurate to within about 3-4 centimeters.

Anomalies in sea level can be identified by calculating the difference between the measured sea surface height and the average sea surface height. 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. These datasets are now available through CoastWatch/OceanWatch and can be accessed here.

Global map of sea level anomalies for June 26, 2017 produced using the NOAA Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry’s daily near-real time dataset.

References and Related Reading

CryoSat Ground Segment, Instrument Processing Facility L1B, Products Specification Format, ESA: CS-RS-ACS-GS-5106, Issue: 6.4, April 2015. https://earth.esa.int/documents/10174/125273/CryoSat_L1_Products_Format_Specification(link is external)
CryoSat Product Handbook, April 2012. https://earth.esa.int/documents/10174/125272/CryoSat_Product_Handbook(link is external)
Jason-3 Product Handbook, SALP-MU-M-OP-16118-CN, edition 1.2. Feb. 2016. https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/media/pdf/jason2/j3_user_handbook.pdf
Leuliette, E. W., and R. Scharroo (2010). Integrating Jason-2 into a Multiple-Altimeter Climate Data Record. Marine Geodesy, 33(1), 504517. doi:10.1080/01490419.2010.487795
OSTM/Jason-2 Products Handbook, CNES: SALP-MU-M-OP-15815-CN EUMETSAT: EUM/OPS-JAS/MAN/08/0041 JPL: OSTM-29-1237: NOAA/NESDIS: Polar Series/OSTM J400, Issue: 1 rev 10, October, 2016, https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/media/pdf/jason2/j2_user_handbook.pdf
SARAL/AltiKa Products handbook, SALP-MU-M-OP-15984-CN, edition 2.5. July 2016. http://www.aviso.altimetry.fr/fileadmin/documents/data/tools/SARAL_Altika_products_handbook_01.pdf(link is external)
Scharroo, R., E. Leuliette, M. Naeije, C. Martin-Puig, and N. Pires (2016), RADS Version 4: An Efficient Way to Analyse the Multi-Mission Altimeter Database, Living Planet Symposium, Proceedings of the conference held 9-13 May 2016 in Prague, Czech Republic. Edited by L. Ouwehand. ESA-SP Volume 740, ISBN: 978-92- 9221-305- 3.
Sentinel-3 User Handbook, ESA: GMES-S3OP-EOPG-TN-13-0001, Issue 1, September 2013. https://sentinel.esa.int/documents/247904/685236/Sentinel-3_User_Handbook