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Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) Long-term Mean, 2003-2018 - American Samoa

Metadata Updated: October 7, 2023

Solar irradiance is one of the most important factors influencing coral reefs. As a majority of their nutrients are obtained from symbiotic photosynthesizing organisms, reef-building corals need sunlight as a fundamental source of energy. Seasonally low irradiance at high latitudes may be linked to reduced growth rates in corals and may limit reef calcification to shallower depths than that observed at lower latitudes. However, high levels of irradiance can lead to light-induced damage, production of free radicals, and in combination with increased temperatures, can exacerbate coral bleaching. Irradiance is here represented by PAR (photosynthetically active radiation), which is the spectrum of light that is important for photosynthesis. This layer represents the mean of 8-day time series of PAR (mol/m2/day) from 2003-2018.

Data for PAR for the time period 2003-2018 were obtained from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Aqua satellite instrument from the NASA OceanColor website as 8-day 4-km composites.

The PAR long-term mean was calculated by taking the average of all 8-day data from 2003-2018 for each pixel. A quality control mask was applied to remove spurious data associated with shallow water, following Gove et al., 2013. Nearshore map pixels with no data were filled with values from the nearest neighboring valid offshore pixel by using a grid of points and the Near Analysis tool in ArcGIS then converting points to raster.

Data source: https://oceanwatch.pifsc.noaa.gov/erddap/griddap/aqua_par_8d_2018_0.graph

Access & Use Information

License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Date September 7, 2021
Metadata Created Date October 7, 2023
Metadata Updated Date October 7, 2023
Reference Date(s) September 7, 2021 (creation), September 7, 2021 (issued), September 7, 2021 (revision)
Frequency Of Update

Metadata Source

Harvested from ioos

Graphic Preview

Sample image.

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Date September 7, 2021
Metadata Created Date October 7, 2023
Metadata Updated Date October 7, 2023
Reference Date(s) September 7, 2021 (creation), September 7, 2021 (issued), September 7, 2021 (revision)
Responsible Party NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) (Point of Contact)
Contact Email
Guid as_noaa_all_par_avg
Access Constraints
Bbox East Long -167.82502007000386
Bbox North Lat -10.776496516692129
Bbox South Lat -14.732041047992729
Bbox West Long -171.33852794285266
Coupled Resource [{"title": [], "href": ["#DataIdentification"], "uuid": []}, {"title": [], "href": ["#DataIdentification"], "uuid": []}, {"title": [], "href": ["#DataIdentification"], "uuid": []}]
Frequency Of Update
Graphic Preview Description Sample image.
Graphic Preview File http://pacioos.org/metadata/browse/as_noaa_all_par_avg.png
Harvest Object Id aa8f56d4-7490-41bb-993f-43b71909fe8c
Harvest Source Id 54e15a6e-6dde-4c9c-a8f0-345cc0dfccfb
Harvest Source Title ioos
Licence
Lineage 2021-09-07T00:00:00Z OGC web services (WMS and WFS) enabled by PacIOOS via GeoServer. Original data from source provider may have been reformatted, reprojected, or adjusted in other ways to optimize these capabilities.
Metadata Language eng
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-171.33852794285266, -14.732041047992729], [-167.82502007000386, -14.732041047992729], [-167.82502007000386, -10.776496516692129], [-171.33852794285266, -10.776496516692129], [-171.33852794285266, -14.732041047992729]]]}
Progress
Spatial Data Service Type Open Geospatial Consortium Web Coverage Service (WCS)
Spatial Reference System
Spatial Harvester True

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