Bonney Coast Upwelling: Daily SST Maps from Himawari-8

Himawari-8 satellite data provides hourly sea surface temperature imagery, overcoming the cloud contamination limitations of twice-daily MODIS passes. This dataset contains daily composites and derived upwelling signatures for the Austral summer season from November 2016 to March 2017. It enables the first quantitative, daily-scale investigation of the spatial and temporal development of the Bonney Coast Upwelling.

Use Cases

• Tracking the onset, duration, and termination of the Bonney Coast Upwelling based on daily SST maps
• Investigating connectivity between the BCU and other upwelling features off Kangaroo Island and the Eyre Peninsula
• Analyzing the spatial development of a wind-driven seasonal feature on a scale of days to weeks
• Validating oceanographic models with high-temporal-resolution satellite-derived SST data
• Supporting fisheries management by studying a key feeding ground for endangered blue whales

Strengths

• Uses geostationary Himawari-8 satellite imagery, providing hourly resolution to overcome cloud contamination
• Covers an entire upwelling season (November 2016 - March 2017) with daily composites
• Applies a topographical position index method to isolate upwelling signatures from SST data

Limitations

• Column names and specific data structure are not provided in the metadata
• Dataset size, row count, and license information are unspecified across all sources
• The temporal coverage is limited to a single season (2016-2017 Austral summer)

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Daily sea surface temperature composites generated from hourly Himawari-8 satellite images.

Time Range

November 2016 - March 2017

Freshness

Last updated metadata indicates 2026-04-30, but the data itself covers 2016-2017.

Geography

Bonney Coast region, Australia, including Kangaroo Island and the Eyre Peninsula.