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CoRTAD: Coral Reef Temperature Anomaly Database (SST)

"The Coral Reef Temperature Anomaly Database (CoRTAD) is a collection of sea surface temperature (SST) and related thermal stress metrics, developed specifically for coral reef ecosystem applications but relevant to other ecosystems as well. In addition to SST, it contains SST anomaly (SSTA, weekly SST minus weekly climatological SST), thermal stress anomaly (TSA, weekly SST minus the maximum weekly climatological SST), SSTA Degree Heating Week (SSTA_DHW, sum of previous 12 weeks when SSTA >= 1 degree C), SSTA Frequency (number of times over previous 52 weeks that SSTA >= 1 degree C), TSA DHW (TSA_DHW, also known as a Degree Heating Week, sum of previous 12 weeks when TSA >= 1 degree C),and TSA Frequency (number of times over previous 52 weeks that TSA >= 1 degree C). To provide SST data and related thermal stress parameters with good temporal consistency, high accuracy, and fine spatial resolution. The CoRTAD is intended primarily for climate and ecosystem related applications and studies and was designed specifically to address questions concerning the relationship between coral disease and bleaching and temperature stress."

Key Strengths:

  • Targeted at questions concerning the relationship between coral disease and bleaching and temperature stress
  • Dataset is 'tiled' to allow smaller datasets.
  • Each tile containing the entire time series for the region.

Years of Record

1985/01 to 2005/12
temporal metadataID:

Formats

Timestep

Weekly

Domain

Global

Spatial Resolution

4km

Ocean or Land

Ocean Only

Vertical Levels

Surface Data Set

Input Data

AVHRR-GHC (satellite data)

Earth system components and main variables

Ocean, SST - sea surface temperature

Data Access: Please Cite data sources, following the data providers' instructions.

  1. CoRTAD (Version 4)
  2. CoRTAD (Version 4)

Key Figures

Click the thumbnails to view larger sizes

Thumbnails

Captions
Climate Data Guide Image: CoRTAD Map illustrating CoRTAD tile identifiers (downloaded from http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/SatelliteData/cortad/TileMap.jpg)

Cite this page

National Center for Atmospheric Research Staff (Eds). Last modified 20 Aug 2013. "The Climate Data Guide: CoRTAD: Coral Reef Temperature Anomaly Database (SST)." Retrieved from https://climatedataguide.ucar.edu/climate-data/cortad-coral-reef-temperature-anomaly-database-sst.

Acknowledgement of any material taken from this page is appreciated. On behalf of experts who have contributed data, advice, and/or figures, please cite their work as well.

CoRTAD: Coral Reef Temperature Anomaly Database (SST)

"The Coral Reef Temperature Anomaly Database (CoRTAD) is a collection of sea surface temperature (SST) and related thermal stress metrics, developed specifically for coral reef ecosystem applications but relevant to other ecosystems as well. In addition to SST, it contains SST anomaly (SSTA, weekly SST minus weekly climatological SST), thermal stress anomaly (TSA, weekly SST minus the maximum weekly climatological SST), SSTA Degree Heating Week (SSTA_DHW, sum of previous 12 weeks when SSTA >= 1 degree C), SSTA Frequency (number of times over previous 52 weeks that SSTA >= 1 degree C), TSA DHW (TSA_DHW, also known as a Degree Heating Week, sum of previous 12 weeks when TSA >= 1 degree C),and TSA Frequency (number of times over previous 52 weeks that TSA >= 1 degree C). To provide SST data and related thermal stress parameters with good temporal consistency, high accuracy, and fine spatial resolution. The CoRTAD is intended primarily for climate and ecosystem related applications and studies and was designed specifically to address questions concerning the relationship between coral disease and bleaching and temperature stress."

1985-01/2005-12