NOAA's CoastWatch Program makes data and imagery available from a variety of sensors and satellites. Deciding which satellite data to view or download depends on the type of information that is needed. The most commonly requested data are sea surface temperature, ocean surface winds, or ocean color. These products can be browsed online here at the NOAA CoastWatch website.

The images displayed on the NOAA CoastWatch website are created from satellite datasets. For many uses, these images provide enough information and are easily viewed over the Internet. The satellite datasets used to make these images are self-contained, which means they hold more than just the information required to produce an image. The resulting NOAA CoastWatch data products are not viewable by Internet browsers and may require specialized software to view, manipulate, and extract the information from the dataset. CoastWatch provides software utilities and data primers to assist in using these data products.

There are many uses for each type of image. Sea surface temperature maps help meteorologists predict weather and fishermen locate prime fishing areas. Ocean color and chlorophyll -a levels help scientist track changes in the ocean that may indicate harmful algal blooms, while ocean surface winds are used by sailors and commercial shipping pilots for navigation. Each image and dataset is available in near real-time, so the image is only a few hours old.

• Sea Surface Temperature (SST)
• Ocean Color (Chlorophyll-a, nLw, etc.)
• Ocean Surface Winds

If you would like to submit a comment regarding any of the CoastWatch data products, please do so by completing a Comment Form.