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Health of coral reefs detected from orbit

3 October 2005

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An Envisat MERIS image of the Great Barrier Reef off Australia's Queensland coast, centred on Cape York Peninsula. Taken on 19 August 2004, this MERIS Full Resolution mode images has a spatial resolution of 300 metres.

Credits: ESA

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This February 2004 MERIS Full Resolution image shows the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef, with a close-up of the Heron Island reef, used as a test area for coral bleaching detection during the one-year programme, funded by the Wealth from Oceans Flagship and the CSIRO Earth Observation Centre.

Credits: ESA/CSIRO

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This close-up of the Heron Island reef taken from the previous MERIS Full Resolution image shows the individual 300-metre pixels which were the basis of a coral bleaching detection sensitivity analysis. The results also turned out to be sensitive to tidal changes in bathymetry.

Credits: CSIRO

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