The Role of Clouds in Coral Bleaching Events Over the Great Barrier Reef

Thermal coral bleaching events (CBEs) over the Pacific, including those Great Barrier Reef (GBR), have commonly been linked to El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), with reported be a direct result of sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies driven by Niño. However, such relationship cannot explain CBEs that occurred during La Niña or neutral phase ENSO. Here, we show GBR is characterized significant negative correlation between total cloud cover anomaly (TCCA) and lagged SST (SSTA) whose magnitude spatial extent are greater than SSTA-ENSO correlation. This TCCA-SSTA (lagged) prevails two-thirds study domain even after ENSO signal removed, which suggests local-scale reduced key component regional warm shallow water formation occurrence thermal CBEs.