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Description:
Project Manager:
Mark Eakin
Project Years:
2015
2016
2017
Project Summary:
New satellite products to monitor the threat of land-based sources of pollution (LBSP) to coral reefs are being developed by NESDIS/STAR’s Ocean Color Team in conjunction with Coral Reef Watch (CRW). Following two years of in-house prototype work (FY13/14) and collaborative FY15/16 efforts with STAR and the Coral Program, we propose to continue this collaboration to build effective satellite tools that managers can use to monitor water quality at and near reefs. Near-real-time satellite products of turbidity [Diffuse Attenuation Coefficient - Kd(490)], Chlorophyll-a, and SST will be produced targeting two U.S. Coral Reef Task Force Priority Watershed sites in Puerto Rico and West Maui). Background levels and “climatologies” have been derived for Puerto Rico and will be derived for West Maui to construct anomaly products from each VIIRS parameter. Time-series anomaly products for each watershed will give managers information on how conditions have varied through time. Working with our NCCOS partner and NOAA-EPP interns, critical in-situ measurements over SW Puerto Rican coral reefs will be collected for STAR's Color Team to calibrate and validate the satellite parameters. EPP student field work is presently being conducted at Dr. Armstrong's University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez (UPRM) laboratory in La Parguera. A recently-graduated EPP student on this effort now serves as the local coordinator for Guánica Bay color products. During FY17 our NOAA-EPP doctoral student, co-mentored by our NCCOS partner, will provide on-site information at UPRM to integrate with CRW’s color and Light Stress Damage products.To ensure CRW’s products are responsive to managers’ needs, face-to-face dialogue in the jurisdictions is crucial to both help marine resource managers understand and correctly use satellite-based remote sensing products and to help CRW adjust the products to maximize their benefit to managers. CRW will continue engaging local managers in Puerto Rico and Hawaii, and American Samoa so products developed are relevant and useful.The CRW Senior Consultant, working under direction from STAR’s Color Team director and CRW’s Coordinator, will continue leading development of VIIRS-based ocean color products to demonstrate variability in water quality at each watershed site during large rainfall events over the past several years, contrasting levels with periods of minimal rainfall and runoff. We anticipate continued FY17 collaborative (matching) funding from STAR’s ORS Program, NOAA EPP, and NCCOS. We request FY17 travel funds from the Coral Program that are necessary to coordinate with associated watershed coordinators in Puerto Rico and Hawai'i and student/intern from Maui College in West Maui. Please note that this is a research effort. Therefore, to enhance the utility of new tools developed, other approaches for utilizing ocean color products for coral reef applications will be explored through continued and expanded collaborations with Coral Program and Australian colleagues who are some of the leading experts in this field.
Expected Outcome:
Products will be developed to characterize levels and anomalies of turbidity using VIIRS diffuse attenuation coefficient [Kd(490)] and chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) within each watershed’s outflow. Working closely with local managers in Puerto Rico and West Maui, we defined two progressively expanding “Watershed Virtual Areas” (WVAs) per watershed containing the watershed outflow, along-shore downstream areas, and extending across the coral reef(s). These WVAs will serve as a more appropriate tool for indexing water quality than simply imagery or single pixel Virtual Station data. We will accumulate and quantify each watershed’s outfall in these WVAs for both (a) anomalous and (b) critical water quality (LBSP) levels. This information will then be communicated to watershed Coordinators, USCRTF Watershed Working Group members, and other local managers to solicit/incorporate their feedback, adjust WVA boundaries to best pin-point water quality issues originating from adjacent watersheds, and eventually help document water quality improvements from changing practices within each watershed. Working closely with the watershed coordinators and other users we will seek to find the best way to present these data on CRW website and, eventually through automated email alerts. Our 2015 NOAA Satellite Conference poster also can be found at this website.Efforts during FY15/16 involved setting up VIIRS datasets (2012-2016) including selected daily, weekly and monthly products on both the “background” (“climatological” – 2012-2016 average) levels of water quality, and near-real-time provisional anomaly products (see latest results). In FY17, STAR’s Ocean Color Team expects to exploit additional VIIRS 640nm ocean color data at higher resolution (375m) that should enable a substantial improvement to our existing resolution of ocean color products as well as the potential of adding new products (e.g. colored dissolved organic matter and total dissolved solids) during the coming years. A separate but relevant NCCOS EPP opportunity includes a doctoral candidate who is working with the CRW team in La Parguera to develop CRW’s Light Stress Damage (LSD) product for SW Puerto Rico, including Guánica Bay. As appropriate, we will coordinate the LSD work with our ocean color product development in coordination with the NOAA Ecoforecasting program efforts on HAB detection.
Project Locations:
Jursdiction Priority Sites:
- Guanica and Marine Extension
- Ka‘anapali-Kahekili (Maui)
Project Category:
Land-based Sources of Pollution (LBSP)
Project Type:
Closed
Project Status:
Completed
Associated Products:
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