The course introduces participants to the different types of environmental satellite data, including ocean color, sea surface temperature, sea surface height, salinity, ocean surface winds and sea ice. Participants will also learn to use tools developed by various agencies, including Southwest Fisheries Science Center's Environmental Research Division, CoastWatch-Central Office, CoastWatch-West Coast and PolarWatch, to locate online satellite data, subset the data to the spatial and temporal coverage appropriate to their needs, and download the data into the analysis software of their choice. We generally focus on R, ArcGIS, and Python, because of the popularity of these software packages.
In the workshop, participants have the opportunity to work with instructors on individual projects. Participants are encouraged to come to the course with a specific project to work on during the workshops.
Please note that until further notice, the courses will be conducted entirely online. For additional information, please contact CoastWatch via our feedback form.
The course consists follows the following daily format:
The course was developed and will be taught by instructors from the NOAA CoastWatch program.
There is no financial fee to attend this course. However, we do expect ‘payment’ from participants in the form of a slide due on the last day of the course describing the project they applied worked on in class. These slides have been crucial for obtaining continuing support for these courses, and they are important for documenting the usages of NOAA satellite data.
Several weeks before the course begins, please visit the resources page for course participants. The page describes software requirements and provides links to the syllabus and course materials.
Resources