A database of global coastal conditions

Remote sensing satellite imagery has the potential to monitor and understand dynamic environmental phenomena by retrieving information about Earth’s surface. Marine ecosystems, however, have been studied with less intensity than terrestrial ecosystems due, in part, to data limitations. Data on sea surface temperature (SST) and Chlorophyll-a (Chlo-a) can provide quantitative information of environmental conditions in coastal regions at a high spatial and temporal resolutions. Using the exclusive economic zone of coastal regions as the study area, we compiled monthly and annual statistics of SST and Chlo-a globally for 2003 to 2020. This ready-to-use dataset aims to reduce the computational time and costs for local-, regional-, continental-, and global-level studies of coastal areas. Data may be of interest to researchers in the areas of ecology, oceanography, biogeography, fisheries, and global change. Target applications of the database include environmental monitoring of biodiversity and marine microorganisms, and environmental anomalies.