Search results

Healthy coral reefs provide a home for millions of aquatic species and numerous ecosystemic services. Yet they are severely threatened. When stressed, corals expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissues and become white (bleached) and vulnerable. The NOAA Coral Reef Watch daily global 5km satellite coral Bleaching Alert Area (7-day maximum) is a composite product that summarizes the current Degree Heating Week (a cumulative measurement of both intensity and duration of heat stress) and Coral Bleaching HotSpot (occurrence and magnitude of instantaneous heat stress) values. At a glance

River floods are recognized as one of the major causes of economic damages and loss of human lives worldwide. Quantifying flood hazard is an essential component of resilience planning, prevention measures, emergency response, and mitigation, including insurance. This map depicts flood prone areas for flood events with a 100-year return period (i.e. with 1% chance of being exceeded in any one year). Cell values indicate water depth in meters. The map can be used to assess flood exposure and risk for population and assets.

The Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) uses satellite observations to detect active fires and thermal anomalies. They deliver this information to decision makers in near real-time (within 3 hours of satellite observation). This dataset includes active fires of the last 72h. Each point represents the centre of a 375 m resolution pixel where a fire was detected. It is updated twice daily. Compared to other coarser resolution (≥1km) satellite fire detection products, it provides improved response for smaller fires

The Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) uses satellite observations to detect active fires and thermal anomalies. They deliver this information to decision makers in near real-time (within 3 hours of satellite observation). This dataset includes active fires of the last 48h. Each point represents the centre of a 375 m resolution pixel where a fire was detected. It is updated twice daily. Compared to other coarser resolution (≥1km) satellite fire detection products, it provides improved response for smaller fires

Monitoring of sea surface temperature (SST) provides fundamental information on the global climate system and for the study of marine ecosystems. This layer compares the SST value of the last full month with the long-term mean SST. A positive anomaly (warm colours) means the monthly SST is warmer than the long-term average for that month; a negative anomaly (cool colours) means it is cooler than the average.

Increasing water scarcity and water quality issues are serious constraints in Africa and worldwide. Measuring precipitation anomalies is important for detecting and characterizing meteorological droughts, and, in the agricultural sector especially, for effectively managing climate related uncertainties. This layer shows the deviation of the precipitations of the last full month from the long-term average of the same month. A positive anomaly (shades of blue) means there was more rainfall than average during that month. A negative anomaly (yellow to red) means there was less rainfall than

Climate - in terms of temperature, precipitation and continentality - is a primary determinant in the distribution of vegetation. Salvador Rivas-Martinez and Salvador Rivas-Saenz (2004) developed a global bioclimatic classification system that quantifies key bioclimatic indices reflective of vegetation distributions. These indices can be used to model thermotypes (i.e. hot-cold gradients) and ombrotypes (i.e. wet-dry gradients). Their model was translated into GIS spatial algorithms during modeling of the US ES bioclimate data (Warner et. al. 2008). These spatial models were used (with minor

Critical natural assets are defined as the natural and semi-natural terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems required to maintain 12 of nature’s ‘local’ contributions to people (local NCP) in the ocean (blue). 12 Local NCP for key benefits like security in food, water, hazards, material and culture. as follows: for food, pollinator habitat sufficiency ofr pollination dependent crop production, fodder production for livestock, wild riverine and marine fish catch ; for water, water quality regulation, via sediment retention and nutrient retention; for natural hazards, flood risk reduction and coastal

Agricultural drought events can affect large regions across the world. Soil moisture (or soil water content) is an important variable for plant growth, and - together with precipitation and evapotranspiration - is a basic component of the hydrological cycle. The Soil Moisture Anomaly (SMA) indicator is used to detect and monitor agricultural drought, that is when there is reduced crop production due to insufficient soil moisture. It is computed as a deviation from the climatological reference period, and is updated 3 times a month (after the 10th, the 20th and the last day of the month). This

Africa is considered one of the most vulnerable regions to weather and climate variability. Extreme events such as heat waves have important impacts on public health, water supplies, food security, and more generally on both regional economies and natural ecosystems. A prolonged period of hot days can feed wildfires, inhibit crop yields, or produce algae blooms with consequences on lakes oxygenation and, ultimately, fish mortality. Understanding of temperature extreme regime in Africa is necessary to assess the impacts of climate change on human and natural systems and to develop suitable

Carbon storage in biomass (biological material) is a key link in the global carbon cycle, and consequently for climate change mitigation. Forests in particular are an important carbon sink that help reduce the greenhouse effect. Together, the above-ground carbon (carbon fraction contained in the stems, barks, branches and twigs of living trees), the belowground biomass carbon (carbon fraction contained in roots of living trees) and the soil organic carbon (amount of carbon stored in the soil) provide a complete overview of the total carbon stored in forest areas (trees and soil). This map

The Dead Wood Carbon and Litter Carbon pools have been estimated at global level as constant fractions of ESA Biomass CCI Above Ground Biomass (AGB), v.3 (2018) using a lookup table based on global ecological zone, elevation and precipitation regime, as proposed by Harris, N.L., Gibbs, D.A., Baccini, A. et al. Global maps of twenty-first century forest carbon fluxes. Nat. Clim. Chang. 11, 234–240 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-00976-6

The data provided here are the result of a time-series analysis of carbon density change (in Mg/ha) between 2003-2014 spanning tropical America, Africa, and Asia (23.45 N lat.-23.45 S lat.). The original data is provided as two separate rasters representing (1) carbon density net gain and (2) carbon density net loss within each ~463 x 463 metre pixel, with only pixels exhibiting statistical significance at the 95% level being reported. The data here was re-projected from the its original MODIS sinusoidal projection to WGS84.