CoRTAD V5: Global 4 km Sea Surface Temperature and Thermal Stress Metrics, 1982-2012

Version 5 of the Coral Reef Temperature Anomaly Database provides weekly global sea surface temperature data at a 4 km resolution for over 30 years. The dataset includes derived thermal stress metrics like Degree Heating Weeks and anomaly frequencies, based on the Pathfinder V5.2 satellite dataset. NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program supported its creation in collaboration with researchers from Conservation International and the University of North Carolina.

Use Cases

• Modeling coral bleaching risk based on Degree Heating Week (DHW) metrics
• Analyzing long-term sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) trends for climate studies
• Assessing thermal stress frequency on coral reefs using the TSA Frequency metric
• Correlating marine wind speed and sea ice concentration data with temperature anomalies

Strengths

• Provides over 30 years of continuous weekly data from 1982-01-02 to 2012-12 28
• Includes multiple derived thermal stress metrics (SSTA, TSA, DHW, Frequency) for analysis
• Global coverage at a 4 km spatial resolution

Limitations

• Last updated 2012-12-28 00:00:00; freshness should be verified
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download

Provenance

Source

NOAA_NCEI, based on Pathfinder V5.2 satellite data.

Collection Method

Weekly-averaged satellite-derived sea surface temperature processing.

Time Range

1982-01-02 to 2012-12-28

Freshness

Data covers 1982-2012; final update was 2012-12-28.

Geography

Global