Chlorophyll a Seasonal Variations in Australian Waters, 2002-2017

MODIS satellite data processed with NASA's SeaDAS software measures long-term seasonal chlorophyll a concentrations in ocean surface waters. Monthly images from July 2002 to December 2017 were used to calculate standard deviations for the four austral seasons across the entire Australian Exclusive Economic Zone and surrounding waters. 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.
• Analyzing long-term oceanographic trends based on a 15-year time series of MODIS-derived data.
• Mapping marine primary productivity across the Australian EEZ and southern ocean based on geospatial coverage.
• Assessing seasonal environmental variability for ecosystem management based on calculated standard deviations for austral seasons.

Strengths

• Data spans over 15 years, from July 2002 to December 2017.
• Geospatial coverage includes the entire Australian EEZ and surrounding waters, including the southern ocean.
• Derived from MODIS (Aqua) satellite imagery using NASA's standardized SeaDAS processing 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.
• Data may reflect temporal bias inherent to the specific MODIS Aqua sensor's operational period.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network, supported by the National Environmental Science Program (NESP) Marine Biodiversity Hub.

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 2026-04-16 10:01:10.458955; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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