East Australian Current Shoreward Intrusion Mapping from 26-Year Satellite SST

A 26-year remotely sensed dataset from 1992-2018 maps the seasonal shoreward intrusion of the East Australian Current off northern New South Wales. Geoscience Australia researchers used AVHRR Sea Surface Temperature data and a Topographic Position Index technique to quantify intrusion area and distance-to-coast. Analyses show the current moves ~6 km closer and occupies ~12% more shelf area in austral summer and autumn compared to winter.

Use Cases

• Analyze seasonal patterns in the EAC's distance-to-coast and intrusion area to validate coastal ocean dynamics models.
• Correlate mapped EAC intrusion metrics with historical records of coastal upwelling and shelf circulation events.
• Use the 26-year SST-based mapping to study long-term variability in the current's shoreward encroachment behavior.
• Apply the Topographic Position Index (TPI) processing technique to similar ocean current datasets for quantitative feature extraction.

Strengths

• 26 years of continuous temporal coverage from 1992 to 2018 provides a long-term baseline for analysis.
• Quantitative mapping outputs enable direct measurement of key intrusion metrics like area and distance-to-coast.
• Spatial analysis covers a defined coastal region of northern New South Wales between 28°S and 32.5°S.
• Method applies a specific Topographic Position Index image processing technique to AVHRR Sea Surface Temperature data.

Limitations

• Data is derived solely from satellite remote sensing (AVHRR SST), lacking in-situ oceanographic measurements for validation.
• The study's geographic scope is limited to a specific segment of the Australian coast, restricting broader regional generalization.
• The primary data format is HTML, which may not be a structured, machine-readable format preferred for computational analysis.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Quantitative mapping using a Topographic Position Index technique applied to long-term AVHRR Sea Surface Temperature data.

Time Range

1992 to 2018

Freshness

null

Geography

Coastal ocean off northern New South Wales, Australia, between 28°S and 32.5°S