CoRTAD V6: Global 4 km Sea Surface Temperature and Thermal Stress Metrics, 1982-2019

Version 6 of the Coral Reef Temperature Anomaly Database (CoRTAD) provides weekly-averaged sea surface temperature and derived thermal stress metrics from 1982-01-02 to 2019-12 27. The dataset, created with support from the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program, is based on the Pathfinder V5.3 dataset and includes metrics like SST anomaly, Degree Heating Weeks, and frequency counts, alongside ancillary sea ice and wind data.

Use Cases

• Modeling coral bleaching risk based on Degree Heating Week (DHW) metrics.
• Analyzing long-term sea surface temperature anomaly trends for climate studies.
• Assessing thermal stress frequency on coral reefs over a 52-week rolling window.
• Correlating marine wind speed and sea ice concentration data with thermal stress events.

Strengths

• Provides a 38-year temporal record from 1982 to 2019.
• Offers a global spatial coverage at a 4 km resolution.
• Includes multiple derived thermal stress metrics like SSTA_DHW and TSA Frequency.

Limitations

• Last updated 2020-12-25 00:00:00; freshness should be verified.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and file size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program, based on Pathfinder V5.3 data.

Collection Method

Derived from satellite-based sea surface temperature observations.

Time Range

1982-01-02 to 2019-12-27

Freshness

Last updated 2020-12-25 00:00:00

Geography

Global