Australian Ocean Chlorophyll a Seasonal Means from MODIS, 2002-2017

Long-term seasonal means of chlorophyll a concentrations in ocean surface waters, derived from MODIS (Aqua) satellite images. The dataset covers the entire Australian Exclusive Economic Zone and surrounding waters, including the southern ocean, with data from July 2002 to December 2017. It was produced by Geoscience Australia using NASA's SeaDAS software and supported by the National Environmental Science Program.

Use Cases

• Modeling seasonal phytoplankton blooms based on chlorophyll a concentration data.
• Analyzing long-term trends in ocean productivity within the Australian EEZ.
• Validating ocean color algorithms using processed MODIS satellite imagery.
• Studying the impact of seasonal cycles on marine ecosystems in the southern ocean.

Strengths

• Data spans over 15 years, from July 2002 to December 2017.
• Spatial coverage includes the entire Australian EEZ and surrounding waters.
• Derived from MODIS (Aqua) imagery using NASA's standardized SeaDAS processing software.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

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

Time Range

July 2002 to December 2017

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-25 17:15:15.714710; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australian Exclusive Economic Zone and surrounding waters, including the southern ocean.