SYDNEY, May 20 (Xinhua) -- Australian marine researchers are working in an international team which has developed a satellite-based system to monitor coral reef bleaching around the world.

The Allen Coral Atlas project, a collaboration between Australia's University of Queensland (UQ), the Arizona State University in the United States and the National Geographic Society, are using detailed habitat maps of more than 230,000 coral reefs around the world to detect signs of bleaching, according to a press release on Thursday.

Satellites detect variations in reef brightness by using high-resolution imagery powered by an advanced algorithm indicating whether reefs are under stress or resilient to marine heatwaves.

Bleaching is caused when waters are too warm and trigger a response in the stressed corals which turns them white.

The Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef stretching over 2,300 kilometres along the eastern coast of Australia, has suffered a spate of bleaching events in recent decades with one study finding it had lost half its coral since 1995.

Dr Chris Roelfsema, from UQ's Remote Sensing Research Center, said the digital atlas tool was desperately needed.

"The current prognosis for the world's coral reefs is bleak," said Roelfsema.

"With ever-warming, more polluted and acidic oceans, models predict that up to 90 percent of coral reefs will be lost by 2050."

"The Allen Coral Atlas will allow us to offer critically important information to scientists, decision and policymakers, something that's urgently needed for rapid response and conservation."

The system allows anyone with internet access to monitor the reefs in real time and download data on every major reef in never-before-seen detail.