ESRI grid showing wave height and period using satellite derived wave data generated from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology's Wave Model (WAM). This grid has been produced by CSIRO for the National Oceans Office, as part of an ongoing commitment to natural resource planning and management through the 'National Marine Bioregionalisation' project. Data from National Geophysical Data Centre (NGDC) has been supplemented where loss of coverage has occurred in the deep ocean regions.

Set of three ESRI grids of mean sea surface height derived from annual and semi-annual temperature and salinity cycles stored in CARS2000. CARS is a set of seasonal maps of temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, nitrate, phosphate and silicate, generated using Loess mapping from all available oceanographic data. It covers the region 100-200E, 50-0S, on a 0.5 degree grid, and on 56 standard depth levels. Higher resolution versions are also available for the Australian continental shelf. The data was obtained from the World Ocean Atlas 98 and CSIRO Marine and NIWA archives. It was designed to improve on the Levitus WOA98 Atlas, in the Australian region. These grids have been produced by CSIRO for the National Oceans Office, as part of an ongoing commitment to natural resource planning and management through the 'National Marine Bioregionalisation' project. Variations in onscreen colour representation or printed reproduction may affect perception of the contained data.

ESRI shape file showing ocean upwelling around Australia. This shape file was produced from a hand drawn map showing upwelling around Australia. The hand drawn map is a qualitative summary of published information on upwelling. The shape file has been produced by CSIRO for the National Oceans Office, as part of an ongoing commitment to natural resource planning and management through the 'National Marine Bioregionalisation' project. Data shown is qualitative.

ESRI grid and shape files showing Wind Stress on Australia's oceans from data supplied by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Re-analysis Project, 1976 to 1998 inclusive. These grid and shape files have been produced by CSIRO for the National Oceans Office, as part of an ongoing commitment to natural resource planning and management through the 'National Marine Bioregionalisation' project. Variations in onscreen colour representation or printed reproduction may affect perception of the contained data.

GIS grid showing sea surface temperature total means from data collected by CSIRO Remote Sensing Division from the USA's National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites. This grid has been produced by CSIRO for the National Oceans Office, as part of an ongoing commitment to natural resource planning and management through the 'National Marine Bioregionalisation' project. Variations in onscreen colour representation or printed reproduction may affect perception of the contained data.

Data showing total zooplankton biomass (dry weight) from stepped oblique bottom to surface plankton tows for both the wet season and dry season in Albatross Bay. Biomass estimates from two mesh sizes. Nine cruises took place between 1975 and 1977 on chartered boats and the "Kalinda". Prawn larval biomass, prawn larval densities and total zooplankton were measured in several transects across the Gulf of Carpentaria.

The Northern Region Circulation (MECO) Model was developed as part of the FRDC Surrogates 1 project. It covers the region from Joseph Bonaparte Gulf to Torres Strait with a fixed horizontal resolution of 0.05 degrees. Outputs included sea level, currents, bottom stress, and other physical parameters. For this dataset the monthly mean non tidal currents for the Northern Marine Region were used to create GIS map layers. Currents are modeled and are not validated.

Temperature, linearly interpolated from CARS2000 mean and seasonal fields to 0.1 degree spaced grid, at depths of 0, 150, 500, 1000 and 2000 metres. The loess filter used to create CARS2000 resolves at each point a mean value and a sinusoid with 1 year period (and in some cases a 6 month period sinusoid - the "semi-annual cycle".) The provided "annual amplitude" is simply the magnitude of that annual sinusoid. CARS is a set of seasonal maps of temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, nitrate, phosphate and silicate, generated using Loess mapping from all available oceanographic data in the region. It covers the region 100-200E, 50-0S, on a 0.5 degree grid, and on 56 standard depth levels. Higher resolution versions are also available for the Australian continental shelf. The data was obtained from the World Ocean Atlas 98 and CSIRO Marine and NIWA archives. It was designed to improve on the Levitus WOA98 Atlas, in the Australian region. CARS2000 is derived from ocean cast data, which is always measured above the sea floor. However, for properties which do not change rapidly near the seafloor, this would not lead to a significant error. All the limitations of CARS2000 also apply here.

This dataset is the wind driven component of transport in the surface boundary is directed perpendicular to wind stress. Negative wind stress curl indicates the winds are placing a clockwise spin on the ocean surface whereas positive wind stress curl indicates the winds are placing a anti-clockwise spin on the ocean surface. (The curl of a field of vectors is a vector which measures the tendency of the vectors to induce rotation.). Wind curl is calculated for the 23 year period from 1976 to 1998 inclusive. Calculated from NCEP Reanalysis data provided by the NOAA-CIRES Climate Diagnostics Center, Boulder, Colorado, USA, from their Web site at http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/

Prawn larval density recorded from stepped oblique bottom to surface plankton tows in Albatross Bay, Gulf of Carpentaria. Nine cruises took place between 1975 and 1977 on chartered boats and the "Kalinda". Prawn larval biomass and densities were measured in several transects across the Gulf of Carpentaria, as well as total plankton biomass. These grids have been produced by CSIRO for the National Oceans Office, as part of an ongoing commitment to natural resource planning and management through the 'National Marine Bioregionalisation' project. The 'conversion factor' used to calculate the non commercial and commerical splits was derived from a spreadsheet containing Metapenaseus and Penaeus species. Commercial Metapenaeus spp. are M. endeavouri and M. ensis. The dataset was used to derive a commercial conversion factor. Thus the component of Metapenaeus spp. that are commercial; "Commercial Metapenaeus Prawn Larvae density" = 'conversion factor" x "total Metapeneaus prawn larval density" Conversion factor value 0.22. This was derived from all GOC data and checked for depths 5-20m, 20m, 30m, 30-40m, and 50-60m. It was found that the ratio of commercial Metapenaeus spp. to non-commercial Metapeneaus is constant with depth across the GOC.