
With coral reefs in rapid decline across the globe, researchers from the University of Hawaii at M noa have pioneered an AI-based surveying tool that monitors reef health from the sky.
Using deep learning models and high-resolution satellite imagery powered by NVIDIA GPUs, the researchers have developed a new method for spotting and tracking coral reef halos - distinctive rings of barren sand encircling reefs.
The study, recently published in the Remote Sensing of Environment journal, could unlock real-time coral reef monitoring and turn the tide on global conservation.
Coral reef halos are a potential proxy for ecosystem health, said Amelia Meier, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Hawaii and co-author of the study. Visible from space, these halo patterns give scientists and conservationists a unique opportunity to observe vast and distant areas. With AI, we can regularly assess halo presence and size in near real time to determine ecosystem well-being.
Sea-ing Clearly: Illuminating Reef Health Previously attributed solely to fish grazing, reef halos can also indicate a healthy predator-prey ecosystem, according to researchers' recent discoveries. While some herbivorous fish graze algae or seagrass near the protective reef perimeter, hunters dig around the seafloor for burrowed invertebrates, laying bare the surrounding sand.
These dynamics indicate the area hosts a healthy food buffet for sustaining a diverse population of ocean dwellers. When the halo changes shape, it signals an imbalance in the marine food web and could indicate an unhealthy reef environment.
In Hot Water While making up less than 1% of the ocean, coral reefs offer habitat, food and nursery grounds for over 1 million aquatic species. There's also huge commercial value - about $375 billion annually in commercial and subsistence fishing, tourism and coastal storm protection, and providing antiviral compounds for drug discovery research.
However, reef health is threatened by overfishing, nutrient contamination and ocean acidification. Intensifying climate change - along with the resulting thermal stress from a warming ocean - also increases coral bleaching and infectious disease.
Over half of the world's coral reefs are already lost or badly damaged, and scientists predict that by 2050 all reefs will face threats, with many in critical danger.
Charting New Horizons With AI Spotting changes in reef halos is key to global conservation efforts. However, tracking these changes is labor- and time-intensive, limiting the number of surveys that researchers can perform every year. Access to reefs in remote locations also poses challenges.
The researchers created an AI tool that identifies and measures reef halos from global satellites, giving conservationists an opportunity to proactively address reef degradation.
Using Planet SkySat images, they developed a dual-model framework employing two types of convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Relying on computer vision methods for image segmentation, they trained a Mask R-CNN model that detects the edges of the reef and halo, pixel by pixel. A U-Net model trained to differentiate between the coral reef and halo then classifies and predicts the areas of both.
An overview of the study regions (A), an example of a SkySat satellite image containing halos (B) and a zoomed-in subset of halos (C). The team used TensorFlow, Keras and PyTorch libraries for training and testing thousands of annotations on the coral reef models.
To handle the task's large compute requirements, the CNNs operate on an NVIDIA RTX A6000 GPU, boosted by a cuDNN-accelerated PyTorch framework. The researchers received the A6000 GPU as participants in the NVIDIA Academic Hardware Grant Program.
The AI tool quickly identifies and measures around 300 halos across 100 square kilometers in about two minutes. The same task takes a human annotator roughly 10 hours. The model also reaches about 90% accuracy depending on location and can navigate various and complicated halo patterns.
Our study marks the first instance of training AI on reef halo patterns, as opposed to more common AI datasets of images, such as those of cats and dogs, Meier said. Processing thousands of images can take a lot of time, but using the NVIDIA GPU sped up the process significantly.
One challenge is that image resolution can be a limiting factor in the model's accuracy. Course-scale imagery with low resolutions makes it difficult to spot reef and halo boundaries and creates less accurate predictions.
Shoring Up Environmental Monitoring Our long-term goal is to transform our findings into a robust monitoring tool for assessing changes in halo size and to draw correlations to the population dynamics of predators and herbivores in the area, Meier said.
With this new approach, the researchers are exploring the relationship between species composition, reef health, and halo presence and size. Currently, they're looking into the association between sharks and halos. If their hypothesized predator-prey-halo interaction proves true, the team anticipates estimating shark abundance from space.
Most recent headlines
14/03/2025
BURLINGTON, Mass. Avid has expanded its executive leadership team (ELT) with the appointment of three experienced executives: Tom Sharma as chief technology off...
14/03/2025
CUPERTINO, Calif. TVU Networks, a pioneer in live video production and a leader in cloud-based media solutions, is marking its 20th anniversary at the 2025 NAB ...
13/03/2025
(L-R) Stephanie Suganami, Tatanka Means, John Malkovich, Ayo Edebiri, and Juliette Lewis attend the premiere of Opus at Eccles Theatre in Park City. (Photo by...
13/03/2025
Spotify took center stage at the London Book Fair this week, reaffirming our commitment to the audiobook market and showcasing our impact on the publishing indu...
13/03/2025
At Spotify, we work every day to lift up new voices, giving creators the opportunity to live off their art. Through Spotify Audiobooks, our in-house publishing ...
13/03/2025
Every time airborne law enforcement (ALE) teams fly, they expect their equipment to perform. Whether airborne units are conducting support for ground teams, bor...
13/03/2025
Sunday February 9 saw the annual return of the US' biggest television event, the Super Bowl LIX. Jamie McCombs, Fox Sports Audio Consultant / Sr. Audio capt...
13/03/2025
On Sunday March 2, stars across the film industry gathered at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles for the 97th Academy Awards. Production Sound Mixer Paul Sandweis...
13/03/2025
WUPPERTAL, Germany Riedel Communications will feature its new StageLink family of smart edge devices, Smart Audio and Mixing Engine (SAME) and Virtual Smart Pan...
13/03/2025
TAG Video Systems and Harmonic Partner to Deliver Enhanced Real-Time Monitoring ...
13/03/2025
DigitalGlue Invites NAB Visitors to Experience New Features in Managed Storage P...
13/03/2025
FOR-A America Theme - Connecting the Present, Building the Future - Comes to Lif...
13/03/2025
CTIA, the wireless industry association, has named former FCC Chairman Aji Pai as its President and Chief Executive Officer, effective April 1. He replaces Mere...
13/03/2025
he National Association of Broadcasters is urging the FCC to end its investigation of that controversial CBS interview with Kamala Harris stating there is no ...
13/03/2025
MIAMI CBS News & Stations continues to expand its use of augmented and virtual reality technologies with the planned launch of an augmented reality/virtual real...
13/03/2025
Srividhya Srinivasan, co-founder and chief customer success & innovation Officer at Amagi, tells TVBEurope how staying ahead of the latest trends is essential f...
13/03/2025
WASHINGTON FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the agency has launched a massive, new deregulatory initiative that could potentially subject virtually all ...
13/03/2025
SUNNYVALE, Calif. SDVI has announced that it has integrated its Rally media supply chain management platform with the Spectra Vail multi-cloud data management s...
13/03/2025
ATLANTA Gray Media has announced that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted a waiver of its local ownership rules to permit Gray Media to acqu...
13/03/2025
TV Tech: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trends at the 2025 NAB Show?...
13/03/2025
Watch Student Naomi Soleils Folk Pop Performance on The Voice The songwriting major sang Stars by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals during the blind auditions.
...
13/03/2025
Roku Debuts NWSL Zone' Within Roku Sports to Spotlight Live Games, Content Feature marks Rokus first women's league-branded zone within service By Bra...
13/03/2025
Pixels, Images, Video, AI - and Us: A Perspective on AI from NDI Inventor Andrew...
13/03/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Lighting Design Group's Steve Brill, Dennis Size ...
13/03/2025
IOC, Comcast NBCU Ink $3B Media-Rights Extension for Olympic Games Through 2036;...
13/03/2025
NCAA March Madness Live Returns with Expanded Availability of MultiView Vertical...
13/03/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Cosm's Devin Poolman on What It Takes To Deliver the Immersive...
13/03/2025
Sky Business, Sky's B2B division, providing connectivity and content to busi...
13/03/2025
Rohde & Schwarz launches R&S NRP140TWG(N) thermal power sensor: A new benchmark ...
13/03/2025
We asked the questions, analysed the answers and now we're excited to share the results of the fifth edition of the ICG Marketing Survey.
Our 2025 survey p...
13/03/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. - March 13, 2025 Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced a breakthrough in video streaming innovation with the launch of new origin capabilitie...
13/03/2025
Haivision Showcases Mission-Critical Video Solutions at SOF Week 2025
Haivision's video wall systems, ISR technology, and DoDIN APL-certified video distri...
13/03/2025
Company Leads the Way with New Software-Based Production Platform, 12G Switcher,...
13/03/2025
A new Apple Immersive concert experience, Metallica, is coming to Apple Vision Pro this Friday, March 14. Filmed in Mexico City during the sold-out second-year ...
13/03/2025
Here is your host, Patrick Kielty!
Shake your Shamrocks, Patrick Kielty will be...
13/03/2025
This St. Patrick's weekend, RT invites you to celebrate all things Irish, showcasing the very best of Irish sport, entertainment and live coverage from the...
13/03/2025
What's next in AI is at GTC 2025. Not only the technology, but the people and ideas that are pushing AI forward - creating new opportunities, novel solution...
13/03/2025
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
By combining T-Mobile's robust network, Thal...
13/03/2025
Bundle up - GeForce NOW is bringing a flurry of Blizzard titles to its ever-expanding library.
Prepare to weather epic gameplay in the cloud, tackling the genr...
13/03/2025
AI is leveling up the world's most beloved games, as the latest advancements...
13/03/2025
PC game modding is massive, with over 5 billion mods downloaded annually. Mods p...
12/03/2025
O Spotify acaba de lan ar o relat rio Loud & Clear deste ano, uma vis o transpar...
12/03/2025
Spotify acaba de presentar el informe Loud & Clear de este a o, una mirada trans...
12/03/2025
Ramadan, a period of profound spiritual significance for Muslims worldwide, is a time for fasting, prayer, reflection, and community. Enrich your experience thi...
12/03/2025
Spotify has just unveiled this year's Loud & Clear report, a transparent loo...
12/03/2025
More than 70% of FAST programming has been produced since 2010, according to new Gracenote report
NEW YORK March 12, 2025 Gracenote, the content data busin...
12/03/2025
GEONA, Nev. Independent digital and linear advertising rep firm Viamedia will adopt cloud-based ShowSeeker Pilot as its primary ad campaign and order management...
12/03/2025
BRUSSELS Mediagenix has announced that Wael Yasin has joined the company as sales director Central Europe....
12/03/2025
LONDON A new study highlights opportunities for shoppable TV and the massive impact online consumer spending is having on the economy, with Omdia predicting tha...
12/03/2025
CUPERTINO, Calif. Interra Systems has announced that Comcast Technology Solutions has integrated recent updates to BATON Version 9 into its operations....