WCD-36. Marine Heatwave Portal

Abstract
Marine heatwaves are periods of persistent anomalously warm ocean temperatures, which can have significant impacts on marine life as well as coastal communities and economies. Scientists at NOAA PSL are working to characterize marine heatwaves, understand how they form and dissipate, and predict them in advance. Here, we develop a marine heatwave portal hosted on the PSL website (https://psl.noaa.gov/marine-heatwaves/). The portal has three main interactive functionalities including global monthly marine heatwave forecasts up to one year in advance, historical and current global marine heatwaves based on observations, and visualization of high resolution regional ocean conditions. The portal provides a user-friendly interface to obtain marine heatwave information from around the globe and high resolution ocean conditions focusing on large marine ecosystems (LMEs). The total 66 LMEs produce about 80% of global annual marine fishery biomass. Therefore, a detailed understanding of the current ocean state provided by high resolution observation can be very helpful to researchers and the general public. We hope this portal will provide guidance for better coastal management and adaptation.