The NOAA CoastWatch/OceanWatch/PolarWatch program (hereafter “CoastWatch”) assists a wide range of stakeholders in their use of ocean and aquatic satellite data along the research-to-applications value chain, from observations to decision making. CoastWatch is a value-added data provider that offers a range of services centered on satellite product development, data distribution and user capacity building, tool development and sometimes direct collaboration on projects and applications. Our overall goal is to remove the barriers that lead to underutilization of environmental satellite data in research , operational, and commercial applications .
Identifying and using satellite data products appropriate for a given application can be challenging for users outside of the satellite community. The NOAA CoastWatch satellite course was developed to build capacity within NOAA and beyond by providing the background knowledge, skills, and resources for using satellite data to our users who are less familiar with satellite products .
CoastWatch and NOAA SeaGrant are working on a needs assessment for aquaculture practitioners and are developing new course modules on water quality and harmful algal blooms. We plan to offer courses targeting audiences engaged in aquaculture to familiarize government, research, and industry users in the aquaculture fields with ocean satellite data products and their potential for informing farm sitings and farm operations.
The course materials include lectures, self-paced tutorials and tool demonstrations. Course resources are publicly available here: https:// coastwatch.gitbook.io/satellite-course/ . The course is followed by a hands-on workshop where participants apply what they have learned to their own projects . Our goal is that upon course completion the participants can apply satellite data to projects using their choice of software (e.g. R, python, ArcGIS).
Courses can be taught in person or virtually, and are tailored to specific audiences, based on participants’ interests, needs and technical level. Surveys are conducted before and after each course to generate metrics of course effectiveness and to inform NOAA developers of satellite product needs and gaps.