Predicting coral stress by combining surface measurements of temperature and light from NOAA POES and GOES satellites

NOAA Coral Reef Watch's global near-real-time coral bleaching operational satellite product suite is extensively used by US and international resource managers, reef scientists, and the general public to monitor thermal stress and predict the onset, development, and severity of mass coral bleaching. However, its algorithms to date have been based solely on satellite sea surface temperature (SST) observations.

This paper describes a new experimental multi-sensor product that combines satellite-derived light and SST to provide a prediction of coral stress that can lead to bleaching. The Light Stress Damage product is based on coral physiology and provides a relative measure of the effect of the combined light and thermal stress on the coral photo-system. The unique aspect of this algorithm is how temperature measurements are transformed into a measure of light stress in order to combine the two effects.