IMOS Coffs Harbour HF Ocean Radar: Real-Time Sea Water Velocity Data

Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia, is the location of an HF ocean radar site monitoring the East Australian Current (EAC). The dataset provides real-time surface current measurements, with wind direction and significant wave height derivable, collected by a WERA phased array system operating at 13.920 MHz. It is managed by the Australian Ocean Data Network and was last updated in July 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling the transport and dispersion of marine biota based on current velocity data.
• Studying the connection between coastal and continental shelf waters for water quality impact assessments.
• Analyzing the structure and variability of the East Australian Current (EAC) near its separation point.
• Estimating wind direction and significant wave height from derived radar data parameters.

Strengths

• Focuses on a key oceanographic region where the East Australian Current is at its narrowest and swiftest.
• Data is collected by a WERA phased array system with a specified frequency of 13.920 MHz and a maximum range of 100 km.
• Surface currents are measured in real-time, suggesting potential for timely analysis.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale modeling.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the single Coffs Harbour radar site.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Data collected by a WERA phased array HF ocean radar system with 16-element receive arrays.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-13 20:00:05.212864; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia, with a focus area off the coast where IMOS and NSW government have mooring sites.