Chapter 12
Thermal Applications
Scarla J. Weeks, Ray Berkelmans and Scott F. Heron
Abstract Of all the remote sensing products, sea surface temperature (SST) is
arguably the most widely used data stream, both by scientists and especially by
coral reef managers and stakeholders. The technology is mature and considerable
effort has gone into creating high-quality time-series, climatologies, and issuespecific products to help managers and lay-people assess the risk of thermal stress
in marine ecosystems. The effort that has gone into developing and improving
global thermal stress products such as HotSpots, Degree Heating Weeks, and
regional products such as ReefTemp, is in large part a reflection of how useful they
have become to reef managers, reef users and scientists across a wide range of
disciplines. In recent years, further development has seen SST ‘now-casting’
products extended to seasonal forecasting products with lead times of up to
6 months, albeit with reduced accuracy on long time horizons. This has been
achieved by incorporating real-time SST data into sophisticated statistical, as well
S. J. Weeks (&)
Biophysical Oceanography Group, School of Geography, Planning and Environmental
Management, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
e-mail: s.weeks@uq.edu.au
R. Berkelmans
Australian Institute of Marine Science, PMB 3, Townsville, QLD 4810, Australia
e-mail: r.berkelmans@aims.gov.au
S. F. Heron
Coral Reef Watch, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 675 Ross River Rd,
Townsville, QLD 4817, Australia
e-mail: scott.heron@noaa.gov
S. F. Heron
Marine Geophysical Laboratory, Physics Department, School of Engineering and Physical
Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia
J. A. Goodman et al. (eds.), Coral Reef Remote Sensing,
DOI: 10.1007/978-90-481-9292-2_12,
Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
313
Thermal Applications
Scarla J. Weeks, Ray Berkelmans and Scott F. Heron
Abstract Of all the remote sensing products, sea surface temperature (SST) is
arguably the most widely used data stream, both by scientists and especially by
coral reef managers and stakeholders. The technology is mature and considerable
effort has gone into creating high-quality time-series, climatologies, and issuespecific products to help managers and lay-people assess the risk of thermal stress
in marine ecosystems. The effort that has gone into developing and improving
global thermal stress products such as HotSpots, Degree Heating Weeks, and
regional products such as ReefTemp, is in large part a reflection of how useful they
have become to reef managers, reef users and scientists across a wide range of
disciplines. In recent years, further development has seen SST ‘now-casting’
products extended to seasonal forecasting products with lead times of up to
6 months, albeit with reduced accuracy on long time horizons. This has been
achieved by incorporating real-time SST data into sophisticated statistical, as well
S. J. Weeks (&)
Biophysical Oceanography Group, School of Geography, Planning and Environmental
Management, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
e-mail: s.weeks@uq.edu.au
R. Berkelmans
Australian Institute of Marine Science, PMB 3, Townsville, QLD 4810, Australia
e-mail: r.berkelmans@aims.gov.au
S. F. Heron
Coral Reef Watch, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 675 Ross River Rd,
Townsville, QLD 4817, Australia
e-mail: scott.heron@noaa.gov
S. F. Heron
Marine Geophysical Laboratory, Physics Department, School of Engineering and Physical
Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia
J. A. Goodman et al. (eds.), Coral Reef Remote Sensing,
DOI: 10.1007/978-90-481-9292-2_12,
Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
313