Indian Ocean Scenario

The year of 1998 was a difficult time for the worlds' coral reefs, with abnormally warm sea surface temperatures (SST's) causing widespread coral bleaching.

The animations and images on this page show the differences between the climatological maximum monthly mean SST (ie the expected summertime maximum) and the satellite-derived NOAA/NESDIS nighttime SST fields. When the nighttime SST field is warmer than the expected summertime maximum by 1 degree C, the region is shown in orange as a potential coral bleaching hotspot.

Now that you have looked at several examples of questions and data, you should be able to develop your own questions for research from given web links. Use the following links to assist you in developing three good questions and researching one of them.

Guidelines For a Good Research Question

Researching a Hypothesis

1998 Indian Ocean Data - http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/PSB/EPS/SST/retro.html