IMOS Ocean Radar: Wind and Currents at Capricorn Bunker Group, Great Barrier Reef

The Capricorn Bunker Group site in the southern Great Barrier Reef Marine Park World Heritage Area provides HF ocean radar coverage from the coast to beyond the continental shelf. The dataset, collected by a WERA phased array system operating at 8.348 MHz, includes measurements of surface currents, wind direction, and significant wave height. The system was decommissioned in April 2017, and the data is managed by the Australian Ocean Data Network.

Use Cases

• Tracking filaments of different water types based on surface current data to investigate impacts on coral reefs and fisheries.
• Studying the frequency and location of regional upwelling based on wind and current data to understand marine productivity.
• Analyzing connectivity between reefs and islands based on geospatial current patterns.
• Validating operational ocean models based on in-situ radar measurements of surface currents and wind.

Strengths

• Data covers a dynamic area where the East Australian Current meanders and recirculates, providing insights into complex oceanographic processes.
• Radar system had a maximum range of 200 km and a range resolution of 4.5 km, offering broad spatial coverage.
• Data collection was supported by multiple institutions including James Cook University, The University of Queensland, NOAA, and the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

Limitations

• Dataset was decommissioned in April 2017, limiting temporal coverage to the period before that date.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale analyses.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network (AODN) via the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS).

Collection Method

Collected by a WERA phased array HF ocean radar system with 12-element receive arrays at Tannum Sands and Lady Elliot Island.

Time Range

Data collection period ended in April 2017.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-10 17:15:15.096796; freshness should be verified as the data collection ended in 2017.

Geography

Southern region of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Queensland, Australia, from the coast to beyond the continental shelf.