Sentinel-3 OLCI: Daily Water Quality Maps for Australian Coastal Waters

Australian coastal waters are monitored by daily, full-resolution (approximately 300m pixel) satellite-derived water quality data. The dataset includes chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM), and total suspended solids (TSS) produced by CSIRO using the FUB-CSIRO Coastal Water Processor. It is a reprojected Level 2P product derived from Sentinel-3 OLCI data, with quality flags applied for data control.

Use Cases

• Monitoring coastal algal blooms based on chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentrations.
• Tracking dissolved organic matter transport based on colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) data.
• Assessing sediment plumes and water clarity based on total suspended solids (TSS) measurements.
• Validating hydrodynamic and biogeochemical models using daily, gridded satellite water quality data.

Strengths

• Data is produced by CSIRO, a national scientific research organization.
• Provides daily observations with a spatial resolution of approximately 300 meters.
• Includes multiple water quality parameters: Chl-a, CDOM, and TSS.
• Incorporates standard Level 1 and algorithm-specific quality flags for data control.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Freshness should be verified; last metadata update was 2026-06-27 20:37:26.499913.

Provenance

Source

CSIRO under the eReefs Phase 5 project, sourced from the Australian Ocean Data Network.

Collection Method

Derived from Sentinel-3 OLCI Level 2 geophysical quantities using the FUB-CSIRO Coastal Water Processor, reprojected via nearest neighbor resampling.

Freshness

Daily observations; last metadata update 2026-06-27.

Geography

Australian coastal waters, likely focusing on the Great Barrier Reef region (eReefs).