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INTRODUCTION:BACKGROUND
Australian researchers have begun a major study to provide
ocean forecasts for coastal and marine industries, and which
could generate a long-term ocean-based climate monitoring
system for primary producers.
Advances in technologies necessary to observe and simulate
the oceans around Australia have provided scientists at CSIRO
and the Bureau of Meteorology with the tools to provide near
real-time information on ocean behaviour.
"At the end of the day, we want to generate ocean charts
for marine users similar to weather forecast charts available
to the rest of the community," said principal investigator,
Dr Andreas Schiller.
Unlike the atmosphere, the ocean changes at a much slower
rate and a rule of thumb is that a day in the atmosphere is
equivalent to a week in the ocean. The BLUElink>
initiative centres on ocean prediction and analysis,
and forecasting of day-to-day variations in ocean currents,
ocean eddies and temperatures.
Example of an ocean current
and sea surface temperature map, generated from data on
sea level and general ocean conditions, being developed
by the Bureau of Meteorology, Royal Australian Navy and
CSIRO.
Oceans charts equivalent to weather maps and similar to
this view of the Tasman Sea will soon be produced for use
by Government, industry and the community.
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