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 contains Level 2P products for chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM), and total suspended solids (TSS), processed by CSIRO using the FUB-CSIRO Coastal Water Processor. It was last updated on 2026-04-28 and is hosted by the Australian Ocean Data Network.

Use Cases

• Monitor algal bloom dynamics based on daily chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentrations.
• Track coastal sediment plumes and turbidity based on total suspended solids (TSS) data.
• Model carbon cycling and dissolved organic matter transport based on CDOM measurements.
• Assess long-term water quality trends using the daily, reprojected time series.

Strengths

• Data is derived from Sentinel-3 OLCI satellite imagery at full resolution (approximately 300m pixel size).
• Includes multiple quality control flags (standard Level 1 and algorithm in/out-of-range flags) for reliability assessment.
• Products are generated daily, providing a high temporal resolution for time-series analysis.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and total dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to its focus on Australian coastal waters via data_gov_au.

Provenance

Source

CSIRO under eReefs Phase 5, using the FUB-CSIRO Coastal Water Processor.

Collection Method

Derived from Sentinel-3 OLCI Level 2 geophysical quantities, reprojected using nearest neighbor resampling.

Time Range

Daily products; specific temporal coverage is not provided.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-28 13:22:44.087210; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Likely focuses on Australian coastal waters, given the source and platform.