NOAA’s CoastWatch Program: Twenty Years and Counting

Paul M. DiGiacomo, CoastWatch Program Manager, NOAA/NESDIS
Michael Soracco, Senior Systems Analyst, SP Systems, Inc.

January 14, 2009 — NOAA’s CoastWatch Program has come a long way since its start in 1987. It began as an ad hoc effort to produce a single product in response to a harmful algal bloom event in North Carolina. Today, it has evolved into a cross-NOAA effort that provides a wide range of oceanographic satellite remote sensing data, products, and services to a diverse group of users. CoastWatch recently received honorable mentions in both the “Breakthroughs” and “Foundation Datasets and Products” categories during NOAA’s 200th anniversary celebration. 

CoastWatch ’s mission is to process near real-time oceanographic satellite data and make it available to  everyone. The early days of CoastWatch required users to register and use a modem to access a few products. Datasets are now more expansive and can be more easily downloaded at much faster speeds.

Data processing and visualization has also improved, allowing users to access and manipulate standardized data (i.e., the CoastWatch Hierarchical Data Format) via a graphical user interface known as the CoastWatch Data Analysis Tool.

CoastWatch currently produces and disseminates a wide variety of satellite remote sensing products. These include ocean color (e.g., chlorophyll-a ), ocean surface winds, sea surface temperature, and other products from a variety of domestic and international platform/sensors. CoastWatch also facilitates and enhances product development and supports their transition from research into applications.

Ocean color is one of CoastWatch’s most used datasets, particularly in support of harmful algal bloom monitoring. Data from GeoEye and NASA satellites are processed into daily, mean, and anomaly ocean color products. These products are then given to NOAA’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services for analysis and are used to issue harmful algal bloom bulletins for the Gulf of Mexico.

CoastWatch continues to expand each and every day. It is currently obtaining and processing data from the European Space Agency and  plans to use data from instruments to be flown aboard NOAA’s new National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System in 2013.  

CoastWatch also is redesigning its Web site and further developing a complementary OceanWatch Web site to support NOAA’s global climate monitoring applications.

For additional information on CoastWatch, please visit http://coastwatch.noaa.gov/ or contact the CoastWatch Program Manager Paul DiGiacomo at Paul.DiGiacomo@noaa.gov.