Remote sensing Sea Surface Temperature Atlas of the Great Barrier Reef To view the SST atlas click on the CD cover Sea Surface Temperature Atlas of the Great Barrier Reef William Skirving Mike Mahoney Craig Steinberg In 1999 the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Reef Research combined with The Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) to create a project designed to develop a sea surface temperate (SST) atlas of the the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). The Atlas is based on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) satellite data archive held at AIMS. The GBR is managed by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA). AIMS is responsible for Federal Government's major research effort on the GBR and together AIMS and GBRMPA are two of the major partners in the CRC Reef Research Centre.  This is a timely product since SST holds the key to understanding many aspects of the GBR. Fish distributions and spatial biodiversity are both strongly influenced by temperature. SST is also a cause of an important stress for corals. During 1998 and 2002 significant proportions of the GBR were bleached due to elevated SSTs. The GBR SST Atlas will shed much light on these issues as well as improve our understanding of the oceanography of the GBR. The atlas consists of images showing the temperature of the ocean surface averaged over fortnightly or monthly periods from January 1990 to December 2000. There is also an image for each month which is the average over the eleven year period for that month which allows a climatology of the GBR SST to be built up. The Atlas covers an area from 7 to 28 degrees South of latitude and 142 to 158 degrees East in longitude and has a spatial resolution of approximately 1 km. The images are viewed used a standard web browser. An enhancement implemented by the AIMS Data Centre allows users to zoom, pan and plot transects of the images. A continuous read out of the temperature, latitude and longitude of the cursor position is also provided.   The example image shown here is the average surface temperature for the month of November using all the data available over the eleven year period from 1990 to 2000. Red is warm and blue is cold water. The image here is shown at reduced resolution for web viewing. Click on this image for a higher resolution view.   For Further information about the Sea Surface Temperature Atlas of the Great Barrier Reef please contact: Mike Mahoney, AIMS on 07 4753 4241  Craig Steinberg, AIMS on 07 4753 4345    November 22, 2005

December 18, 2008