Tropical Australia Sentinel 2 Satellite Composite Imagery for Reef Mapping

200 cloud-free, low tide composite satellite images for the tropical Australian coast from 2018 to 2023. The dataset was created by the Australian Ocean Data Network as part of the NESP MaC 3.17 project. It includes true colour and near infrared false colour styles optimized for mapping shallow reef features.

Use Cases

• Map shallow reef features based on the composite imagery optimized for low tide conditions.
• Identify water depth up to 3 meters based on the near infrared false colour styling.
• Analyze coastal land and intertidal sediment types based on the true colour contrast enhancement.
• Monitor changes in tropical Australian coastlines over a 5-year period based on the 2018-2023 temporal coverage.

Strengths

• 200 Sentinel 2 tiles provide coverage around the tropical Australian coast.
• Images are processed to be cloud-free and represent low tide conditions.
• Two distinct spectral styles (true colour and near infrared false colour) are provided for different analysis purposes.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data may reflect temporal bias inherent to the 2018-2023 collection period.
• The description notes that in very turbid areas, the visible depth limit will be reduced.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Composites created by combining multiple Sentinel 2 images using Google Earth Engine, with specific filtering for cloud cover, tide elevation, and sun-glint.

Time Range

2018-01-01 to 2023-12-31

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-06 05:31:07.396578; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Tropical Australia region, specifically 200 tiles around the tropical Australian coast including the Great Barrier Reef.