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

Monthly chlorophyll a concentration images from July 2002 to December 2017 were processed to calculate standard deviations for four austral seasons. The dataset covers the entire Australian Exclusive Economic Zone and surrounding waters, with measurements in mg/m3. This research was supported by the National Environmental Science Program (NESP) Marine Biodiversity Hub.

Use Cases

• Modeling phytoplankton bloom seasonality based on chlorophyll a concentration variations.
• Assessing long-term ocean health trends based on satellite-derived chlorophyll a data.
• Mapping spatial patterns of primary productivity within the Australian EEZ based on seasonal standard deviations.

Strengths

• 15-year temporal coverage from July 2002 to December 2017.
• Spatial coverage includes the entire Australian EEZ and surrounding waters.
• Data derived from NASA's MODIS (aqua) satellite and processed with SeaDAS software.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

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

Time Range

July 2002 to December 2017

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 19:10:14.089585; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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