Data, background and Bilko resource files

This page contains links to a number of web pages on the Bilko site and elsewhere, which we hope you will find of use. We plan to add to these resources over the coming weeks and months, and welcome contributions from Bilko users.

Coastline data

Shoreline / Coastline Data
Access to shoreline data held at the US National Geophysical Data Centre (NGDC). Includes a Java enabled coastline extractor.

Sources of remotely sensed data

The websites listed below all provide data in a format that can by displayed and processed using the Bilko software. The list is by no means exhaustive; there are many sites on the Internet that supply free data for research and education that are not included. With help from data providers and Bilko users we hope to provide a more complete list with time.

Ocean colour

Ocean Color Web
Access to Level 1, 2 and 3 ocean colour data from NASA's SeaWiFS and MODIS-Aqua sensors. Format: HDF.   Temporal Coverage: SeaWiFS: Sept. 1997 to present. MODIS: 2002 to present.

Sea surface temperature (SST)

Sea surface temperature overview
Access to SST data from a variety of sensors in different formats from NASA's Physical Oceanography DAAC.

OSTIA SST data access page
Near real-time (NRT) access to daily 5km global sea surface temperature (SST) analysis product (level 4) from the UK Met Office. Produced from all available night-time data using GHRSST methods and selected in-situ validation site. Archive data from april 2006 to present. Format: NetCDF, compressed using Bzip2 compressor.

Infrared measurements of sea surface temperature

Global SST from Envisat-AATSR
Gridded level 3 SST data at two spatial resolutions - 10 and 30 arcminutes Format: HDF files containing 32-bit floating point data of temperature in degrees , and grids giving the number of data points included in the temporal and spatial averaging..

Passive microwave measurements of sea surface temperature

Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - EOS (AMSR-E) Ocean Products from RSS
Follow links to the ftp site to download gridded data from the AMSR-E sensor on NASA's EOS-Aqua satellite. Each file contains 5 data-sets:: SST, Wind speed, Atmospheric Water Vapour, Cloud and Rain. Format: Gridded binary data.
(Note information required by Bilko: Header: 0 bytes. Lines: 720. Pixels:1440. Bands: 5. Interleave:BSQ.)

Altimetry products

Ssalto/Duacs multimission altimeter products
Access to gridded altimetry products based on data from Jason-1 + Envisat (Topex/Poseidon + ERS). Format: NetCDF.

Background and further reading

On-line books and articles

This is where you will find links to books, papers and websites that provide background information related to topics covered in the Bilko thematic modules.

Module 7

REMOTE SENSING Handbook for Tropical Coastal Management
Edited by Alasdair J. Edwards
A detailed evaluation of remote sensing as a coastal management tool, aimed at users of remotely sensed data in government, NGOs, research institutes, universities and consulting who are involved in managing the coastal resources of tropical nations
The complete book is also available from UNESCO Publishing at http://upo.unesco.org/details.aspx?Code_Livre=3006.

UN Atlas of the Ocean
The Atlas is an information system designed for use by policy makers who need to become familiar with ocean issues and by scientists, students and resource managers who need access to underlying data bases and approaches to sustainability.

References

We are hoping to make some of the references listed in the thematic modules available to Bilko users in PDF format.

Bilko filters, palettes and formulae

Here you will eventually find descriptions of Bilko 'documents' that may help you to display, analyse and process remotely sensed data from a variety of sources.