Wednesday, 12 January 2005
Implementation of the Operational Automated Coral Bleaching E-mail Alert System
An Automated Coral Bleaching E-mail Alert System, developed at the Office and Research and Applications, has recently been enhanced and operationally implemented at the Office of Satellite Data Processing and Distribution (OSDPD), under the Computer Sciences Corporation's (CSC) Central Satellite Data Processing contract. The system is an additional component of the current NOAA/NESDIS operational satellite coral bleaching monitoring products suite, which includes Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies, Hot Spots, Degree Heating Weeks, and the Tropical Ocean Coral Bleaching Indices web page. The purpose of this system is to alert subscribers, such as reef site managers and other scientists, of the potential for coral bleaching at various reef sites around the world. A web-based form was developed to allow users to subscribe and unsubscribe from the coral bleaching alert system e-mail list, and to select up to 24 coral reef sites that interest them. The most recent operational near-real time coral bleaching data, which is produced twice a week, is used as input to the system, to determine the current alert levels for each reef site, based on whether coral bleaching indicators pass predefined thresholds. Whenever a reef site experiences a change in its alert level, a message is distributed via e-mail to notify interested users. Various levels of alerts are issued depending on the severity of the potential bleaching that is detected. The Automated Coral Bleaching E-mail Alert System serves as a very useful tool for scientists to monitor and predict potential bleaching events, which threaten coral reefs. This poster will convey the usefulness of the Automated Coral Bleaching E-mail Alert System by showing how the system functions.
Supplementary URL: