Hobart

Seminar Abstract

Friday 30 July 2010, 11.30am (Tas time)
CSIRO Auditorium, Hobart

Timothy Patrick Lynch
Australian Mooring Network Facility Leader
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
Hobart

Functions of the Australian National Reference Stations

The National Reference Stations (NRS) are nine Australian coastal locations were multiple data streams are collected, in concert and consistently, over long periods of time. The Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) has expanded the NRS system, building from three to nine the number of coastal time series being supported. The four primary functions of the NRS are: building data time series as reference points for research, monitoring near-shore pelagic ecosystems for plankton at two trophic levels, providing calibration for remotely sensed phytoplankton and ocean colour and providing multiple instrumented sites for studies of ocean acidification. Case studies from the established NRS are used to provide evidence of the worth of reference points in providing context to intensive short term studies. The NRS, by itself, provides a replicated study of Australia’s coastal phytoplankton provinces’ and thus provides a rare broad-scale marine biological monitoring program. In addition to this, new sensors being deployed at the NRS will allow for increased interoperability between remotely sensed ocean colour data products and in-situ observations. At selected NRS additional sensors will be deployed to measure pCO2 uptake by the ocean. The four secondary functions for the NRS are: supporting regional and deep water mooring arrays for measuring both boundary and cross shelf processes, development and verification of models and providing a test bed for technological development. Individual NRS are either component parts or near shore supporting elements of regional and deepwater monitoring systems for the Leeuwin Current, East Australian Current, Flinders Current and Hiri Currents. The relative influences of off-shore and near-shore process between local and remote forcing at the ocean basin scale may also be determined using the NRS data in conjunction with regional and deep water moorings such as the Perth canyons and Spencer Gulf arrays. The NRS have also acted as test beds for a number of scientific programs, which has included telemetry development for the ABOS Pulse project and field testing of the Wetlabs WQM sensor.

Seminar recording

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Location:
CSIRO = Marine Laboratories Auditorium, Castray Esplanade, Hobart

For further information, or to schedule a seminar, contact:
Andrew Meijers, (Oceanographic seminars) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (03) 6232 5399
Natalie Kelly, (Biology/Modelling seminars) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research 0438 452 483
Jillian Enraght-Moony, (seminar administrator) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (03) 6232 5320
Communications Manager, Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC (03) 6226 7888
Tracey Cochrane, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania (03) 6226 2937

Last updated 10/08/10