Australian Ocean Chlorophyll a Seasonal Variations, 2002-2017

Australian EEZ and surrounding waters are covered by this dataset of chlorophyll a concentrations in ocean surface waters. It measures long-term seasonal variations derived from MODIS (Aqua) satellite images processed with NASA's SeaDAS software, using monthly data from July 2002 to December 2017. The research was supported by the National Environmental Science Program (NESP) Marine Biodiversity Hub.

Use Cases

• Modeling phytoplankton seasonal cycles based on chlorophyll a concentration data.
• Analyzing long-term oceanographic trends in Australian waters based on 15+ years of satellite data.
• Studying marine ecosystem health and productivity based on surface water chlorophyll a variations.
• Calibrating satellite-derived ocean color products based on MODIS imagery processed with SeaDAS.

Strengths

• Covers a long temporal range from July 2002 to December 2017.
• Geographic extent includes the entire Australian EEZ and surrounding waters, including the southern ocean.
• Data is derived from MODIS (Aqua) satellite imagery processed with NASA's standardized SeaDAS 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.

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 18:00:24.591498; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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