The Coral Reef Temperature Anomaly Database (CoRTAD) Version 2, developed for coral reef ecosystem applications, offers global weekly sea surface temperature (SST) data from 1982 to 2008 at approximately 4 km resolution. It includes additional years compared to Version 1, and unlike Version 1's HDF4 format, Version 2 is in HDF5 format. The database provides SST metrics, thermal stress anomalies, and parameters like SSTA Degree Heating Week, designed for climate and ecosystem studies to explore the correlation between coral disease, bleaching, and temperature stress.
The data described here is from near-shore shallow water Conductivity-Temperature-Depth (CTD) casts conducted in Aua Reef, American Samoa, by scientists of the Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD) of the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC). The NOAA Fisheries, Ecosystem Sciences Division established 18 survey sites along the water quality gradient near land-based source pollution. This is part of a larger collection of datasets collected as part of the CRCP-funded project 'Linking watershed management activities to reef health in American Samoa' (project no. 31303).
This study of the baseline water quality in American Samoa covered the effects of wet and dry seasons and a variety of tide and weather conditions on water quality and exchange characteristics of several water classifications. Current measurements in the Tafuna area show a reversing tide related longshore current with net transport towards to the southwest.