IMOS - Ocean Radar - Capricorn Bunker Group HF ocean radar site (Great Barrier Reef, Queen

Surface current data from a WERA phased array HF ocean radar system operating at 8.348 MHz with a maximum range of 200 km and 4.5 km resolution. The system, funded by an ARC LEIF Grant and contributions from institutions like James Cook University, was located at Tannum Sands and Lady Elliot Island to monitor the East Australian Current. This site was decommissioned in April 2017.

Use Cases

• Tracking filaments of different water types based on real-time sea water velocity measurements.
• Investigating the frequency and location of regional upwelling based on radar-derived surface current data.
• Studying connectivity between reefs and islands based on geospatial current patterns.
• Validating operational ocean models like Bluelink based on observed surface current and wind data.

Strengths

• Data includes surface currents, wind direction, and significant wave height derived from a dual-site radar system.
• Radar system had a defined maximum range of 200 km and a range resolution of 4.5 km.
• Explicitly linked to specific research infrastructure, the Heron Island Research Station.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The data collection site was decommissioned in April 2017, limiting temporal coverage.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Measured by a WERA phased array HF ocean radar system with 12-element receive arrays.

Time Range

Data collection ended with site decommissioning in April 2017.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-05 16:34:35.765528; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Southern Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, covering from the coast to beyond the continental shelf around the Capricorn Bunker Group.