MODIS Chlorophyll a Seasonal Means for Australian Waters, 2002-2017

July 2002 to December 2017 of satellite-derived chlorophyll a concentration data for the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone and surrounding waters. The dataset provides long-term seasonal means for austral winter, spring, summer, and autumn, derived from MODIS (Aqua) images processed with NASA's SeaDAS software. This research is supported by the National Environmental Science Program Marine Biodiversity Hub.

Use Cases

• Modeling phytoplankton biomass based on satellite-derived chlorophyll a concentrations.
• Analyzing seasonal patterns in ocean surface productivity based on austral season means.
• Monitoring long-term changes in marine ecosystems within the Australian EEZ based on a 15-year time series.

Strengths

• Covers a 15-year time series from July 2002 to December 2017.
• Spatial extent includes the entire Australian EEZ and surrounding waters, including the Southern Ocean.
• Derived from MODIS satellite imagery processed with NASA's standard SeaDAS software.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect temporal bias inherent to the specific 2002-2017 observation period.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Derived from MODIS (Aqua) satellite images using NASA's SeaDAS image processing software.

Time Range

July 2002 to December 2017

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-16 17:37:19.761942; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australian Exclusive Economic Zone and surrounding waters (including the southern ocean)