The Coral Reef Temperature Anomaly Database (CoRTAD) Version 4 provides global sea surface temperature (SST) and derived thermal stress metrics at approximately 4 km resolution on a weekly scale from 1981 through 2010. It was created at the NOAA National Oceanographic Data Center in partnership with the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. The dataset includes SST anomaly, thermal stress anomaly, and Degree Heating Week metrics designed for coral reef ecosystem studies.
Use Cases
- Model coral bleaching risk based on Degree Heating Week (DHW) metrics
- Analyze long-term sea surface temperature trends based on weekly SST data from 1981-2010
- Study thermal stress anomaly patterns relevant to coral reef ecosystems
- Assess frequency of temperature anomalies based on SSTA Frequency metric
Strengths
- Provides 30 years of weekly data from 1981-10-31 to 2010-12-31
- Offers approximately 4 km spatial resolution globally
- Includes multiple thermal stress metrics derived from SST, such as SST anomaly and Degree Heating Week
Limitations
- Last updated 2010-12-31 00:00:00; freshness should be verified
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
Provenance
- Source
- NOAA National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) / NOAA_NCEI
- Collection Method
- Derived from Pathfinder 5.2 Sea Surface Temperature data.
- Time Range
- 1981-10-31 to 2010-12-31
- Geography
- Global