CoastWatch WCCW Information

		Information
West Coast Regional Node

Introduction
CoastWatch is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration program that provides remotely sensed satellite and other environmental data to government decision makers and academic researchers. The West Coast Regional Node is one of several sites throughout the United States set up for the processing and distribution of CoastWatch information:

Honolulu, HI | Anchorage, AK | Pacific Grove, CA | Stennis, MS | Ann Arbor, MI | Miami, FL | Washington, DC | Narragansett, RI
Any member of the government, academic, commerical, or public sectors may access data via the West Coast Regional Node web site free of charge. CoastWatch data is used in a variety of ways to monitor sea-surface-temperature and algal blooms, study fish and marine mammal distributions, and to aid in atmospheric forecasting.
CoastWatch Data
The primary data source for CoastWatch data is the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on the NOAA series polar orbiting weather satellites. The AVHRR sensor measures radiance from the earth in five bands or channels with 1.1 km resolution at nadir:

Channel # Wavelength Band
(microns) Primary use

1 0.58-0.68 (visible) daytime cloud, snow and ice mapping data

2 0.72-1.10 (near-IR) surface water delineation, vegetation and agriculture assessments

3 3.55-3.93 (infrared) nighttime cloud mapping, sea surface temperature measurements, land and water distinctions, and hot spot detection such as volcanic activity or forest fires

4 10.30-11.30 (infrared) cloud mapping, sea and land surface temperature measurements, and soil moisture and volcanic eruption data

5 11.50-12.50 (infrared) sea surface temperature measurements and soil moisture data

Satellite estimates of sea-surface-temperature (SST) are made by converting the radiance measured in the infrared channels to brightness temperature and then using a multichannel technique to calculate SST to within ±0.5°C. Cloud identification masks are also created using visible and infrared channels with a series of spectral gradient, difference, and threshold tests.
How to Access
The West Coast Regional Node web site is designed to supply users with satellite data files and previews in near-real-time. Image data is available for a number of different regions and product data types. Access to CoastWatch satellite data is free and unrestricted. CoastWatch users can visit the data selection page to download data files for use with one of the CoastWatch software packages, plot data using the web site online preview, or convert data to other data formats for use in GIS or scientific plotting packages. As well, the El Niño Watch archives contain information on past and current El Niño conditions. A site history page has been set up to inform users of various changes in the node's web site and data products.
Questions/Comments
The CoastWatch West Coast Regional Node is currently operated by the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) Environmental Research Division in Pacific Grove, CA. Please feel free to contact us for any questions or comments:

Dr. Cara Wilson, Principal Investigator
Dave Foley, CoastWatch Coordinator
Bob Simons, Satellite Product Manager
LTjg Luke Spence, Operations Officer
For those interested in learning more about satellites, satellite data, and Earth observation, try these links:

J-Track: A web-based Java application for real-time satellite tracking. Keep track of hundreds of orbiting objects including weather satellites, space stations, space shuttles, etc.

Comprehensive Large Array Stewardship System: The NOAA/CLASS is a clearing house for near real-time and historical satellite data and derived products such as sea-surface-temperature, atmospheric temperature and humidity, vegetation, etc.

NOAA/NASA AVHRR Oceans Pathfinder: An SST archive site for AVHRR-derived SST data back to 1985 in 9 km, 18 km, and 54 km resolution. Data is available in HDF with extraction software, as well as online browsing.

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Channel #	Wavelength Band (microns)	Primary use

1	0.58-0.68 (visible)	daytime cloud, snow and ice mapping data
2	0.72-1.10 (near-IR)	surface water delineation, vegetation and agriculture assessments
3	3.55-3.93 (infrared)	nighttime cloud mapping, sea surface temperature measurements, land and water distinctions, and hot spot detection such as volcanic activity or forest fires
4	10.30-11.30 (infrared)	cloud mapping, sea and land surface temperature measurements, and soil moisture and volcanic eruption data
5	11.50-12.50 (infrared)	sea surface temperature measurements and soil moisture data

	J-Track: A web-based Java application for real-time satellite tracking. Keep track of hundreds of orbiting objects including weather satellites, space stations, space shuttles, etc.
	Comprehensive Large Array Stewardship System: The NOAA/CLASS is a clearing house for near real-time and historical satellite data and derived products such as sea-surface-temperature, atmospheric temperature and humidity, vegetation, etc.
	NOAA/NASA AVHRR Oceans Pathfinder: An SST archive site for AVHRR-derived SST data back to 1985 in 9 km, 18 km, and 54 km resolution. Data is available in HDF with extraction software, as well as online browsing.