Atsr Maps Coral Bleaching on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef

The Australian Great Barrier Reef (GBR) experienced its most intensive and extensive coral bleaching event on record in early 1998 [1]. This period also saw extensive damage to other reefs around the globe. There is concern among environmental scientists and GBR-based industries, especially tourism, that widespread death and bleaching of corals caused by extremely high temperatures during 1997-98 may occur more frequently on the GBR if global climate change unfolds as predicted during the coming decades [2]. Currently NOAA/NESDIS are developing "SST Anomaly" maps based on AVHRR data which may be useful in monitoring reefs that are under threat. However, coral bleaching temperature thresholds are highly sensitive depending on species and geographic location, and AVHRR absolute accuracies may not be adequate for this task. The sea surface temperatures provided by ATSR and AVHRR data are compared with in situ measurements from several buoys located on the GBR. Maps of coral-bleached areas are also compared with sea surface temperature maps obtained from the satellite data. Although the ATSR has limited coverage due to its narrow swath, the advantage of accessing high spatial resolution data in reef and coastal areas may give a better means of monitoring the water temperature of reefs at risk of coral bleaching. The potential for ATSR to provide improved temperature maps over sections of the GBR is under investigation and progress and results will be reported in this paper. The potential of core samples taken from coral reefs to provide a long term record of local water temperature will also be reported.