IMOS Observations for Coasts and Extremes

The IMOS observing strategy for continent shelf and coastal processes is to provide an extensive national backbone around the shelf with intensive observations in regions of socio-economic and ecological significance. The... [ view full abstract ]

The IMOS observing strategy for continent shelf and coastal processes is to provide an extensive national backbone around the shelf with intensive observations in regions of socio-economic and ecological significance. The national backbone comprises a network of National Reference Station Moorings, access to Satellite remote sensing products and the electronic Marine Information Infrastructure (eMII). The more intensive, region-specific observations include a combination of Shelf Moorings, Ocean Gliders, Ocean Radar, Autonomous Underwater Vehicles and Wireless Sensor Networks (Great Barrier Reef).

Integration between the observing system and relevant modelling frameworks is particularly important in this context - for validation and model development, data assimilation, and observing system design.
In most IMOS Nodes there is now co-evolution of the regional observing systems with regional modelling efforts:
• In Darwin Harbour the IMOS NRS, and second mooring in Beagle Gulf co-invested by Darwin Ports Corporation, has been very valuable where data are used in real time to run models and help with port operations.
• In SA, collaboration between IMOS and the SAROM regional modelling activity is being leveraged into the SA Gulfs to create a new, co-invested partnership. A new SA/Vic/TAS ROMS model is also being set up to move to data assimilation.
• In NSW, the SEAROMS modelling activity will be further developed under a new ARC project including moving to data assimilation.
• OzROMS is a modelling effort (out of WA) where shelf-ocean exchanges for alongshore and across shore transport in Australian are estimated and use models validated with IMOS observations with plans to adopt the model to predict extreme water levels around Australia.
• eReefs, the latest and most sophisticated hydrodynamic model of the GBR region designed to become a real-time forecasting system where modelling of reflectance is a new development for its biogeochemical component.

Additionally the Australian Marine Virtual Laboratory (MARVL) has been established as a web-based open source application that provides a number of model choices and search and recovery of relevant observations. This tool has been applied successfully in a number of case studies around Australia ranging in scale from locally confined estuaries to the Tasman Sea.