The major planet ’s coral reefs have been taking a pound lately . With the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) declaring only the third everglobal coral bleaching eventlast year , what start around Hawaii and Florida has spread to all ocean , even causingdevastating impactson the Great Barrier Reef . But now scientists might haveanother toolin their box seat to facilitate supervise the health of the reefs , from 780 km ( 485 miles ) up .
Going useable at theend of last year , the European Space Agency ’s new Sentinel-2a satellite ’s colouration camera has been takingincredible picturesof Earth ’s surface . To be used by scientist to cross everything from the yields of crop to the ontogeny of urban center , it seems that it might also be able to peer under the waves and evaluate the health and increment of coral Witwatersrand around the world . A new labor , calledSen2Coral , is track one especial reef , and has already find a whitening of the coral that ’s indicative of bleaching .
By take only the blue band of light from the camera , the satelliteis able to seebetween 10 and 15 meters ( 33 and 50 feet ) below the surface of the sea . By doing this , features of the Rand that you may not see in the full colour images leap out and become much more prominent . This could be a vital tool in assessing the health of reef over a much larger region than is currently possible by gravy holder or air - based surveys , and would also be much loud , giving scientists a accurate picture of just what exactly is go on in the ocean .
presently , as sea surface temperatures rise , it causes coral around the world to bleach . This occurs whenthe stressed red coral expel the alga that experience in their tissue paper , turning them clean . This in itself does n’t kill the coral , but if the water temperature stay warm for too long , it can eventually do so . The bleaching also makes the reefs more susceptible to disease .
Hopefully , if Sentinel-2a ’s technique can be definitively validated , the satellite can become another utile tool to detect and track changes in coral reefs .
