IMOS AusTemp: Degree Heating Days for Coral Bleaching Risk, 2012 Onwards

Summer Degree Heating Days (DHD) data from 2012 onward, calculated by accumulating daily positive sea surface temperature anomalies. The DHD magnitude correlates well with past coral bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef. This product is based on a high-resolution satellite-based nowcast system from the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) and the Bureau of Meteorology.

Use Cases

• Modeling coral bleaching risk based on accumulated positive sea surface temperature anomalies.
• Analyzing long-term thermal stress trends on the Great Barrier Reef based on data since 2012.
• Validating satellite-derived sea surface temperature products against historical bleaching events.
• Assessing the impact of different climatology periods (1993-2003 vs. 2002-2011) on anomaly calculations.

Strengths

• Data spans multiple summers from 1 December 2012 to 30 April each year.
• Derived from a state-of-the-art, high-resolution satellite-based nowcast system.
• Correlates with past coral bleaching events, providing a validated risk indicator.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data may contain gaps where sea surface temperature cannot be calculated due to cloud cover.

Provenance

Source

Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS), Bureau of Meteorology, Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Calculated from satellite-based 1-day L3S night-only Sea Surface Temperature (SST) product.

Time Range

Summers from 1 December 2012 to 30 April each year.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-13 20:38:34.718464; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Great Barrier Reef region