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South Australia’s oceanographic RADAR system
Near real-time data on surface currents, waves and wind along South Australia’s coast will soon be available following the installation of the Cape Wiles HF RADAR system.
This means that for the first time marine industries and ecotourism operators will be able to determine the state of the ocean before leaving port and plot a cruise plan that will surf ocean currents, saving time, money and greenhouse gas emissions.
The information will also aid search and rescue operations and marine pollution management.
Wind data from the RADAR will provide the Bureau of Meteorology with crucial real time information to better inform predictions of fronts that can have a devastating impact during severe weather bushfire events.
The cutting edge $623,000 WERA HF Ocean RADAR system, funded by the South Australian ($516,000) and Commonwealth Governments, covers the entrance and shelf regions adjacent to Gulf St Vincent and Spencer Gulf.
The RADARS were installed on the Eyre and Yorke Peninsulas late last year, and are due to become operational providing on-line information every hour by mid-2010.
The installation of this system led to additional funding from the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS), to build a $500,000 CODAR RADAR system on SA’s Bonney Coast in the South-East.
MISA researchers John Middleton (SARDI) and Laurent Seuront (Flinders) are leading the acquisition and deployment of these RADAR systems that form part of the $9.4M Southern Australian IMOS node (SAIMOS).
This success is a major win for South Australia, with the total value of the RADARS exceeding $1.2 million, representing an extraordinary return on the initial investment by the South Australian Government.
South Australian HF Ocean RADAR forms part of an Australian Coastal Ocean RADAR Network (ACORN), consisting of six radar sites in the southern Great Barrier Reef, the entrance to the South Australian Gulfs, the Perth Canyon, Turquoise Coast in WA and Coffs Harbour on the NSW coast. The sixth system, also funded by the Commonwealth and Victorian governments as part of the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS), will be installed on the Bonney Coast in the south-east of SA in the coming months.
This network is the nation-wide IMOS collaborative program designed to observe the oceans around Australia, including the coastal ocean and the ‘blue water’ open oceans. The data produced also supports fundamental research on many of the critical marine issues facing Australia, including climate change and sustainability of ecosystems.
In addition to assisting researchers, the RADAR data can also be used in search and rescue operations; marine pollution containment situations; eco-tourism; shipping, to minimise fuel costs and consequently carbon footprints by utilising currents; and improving severe weather predications assisting in managing natural disasters such as bush fires.
The HF Ocean RADARs will provide surface ocean currents between 50-100km off shore, updated hourly.
This data will be available on the web once the HF Ocean RADARs become operational via the IMOS ocean portal eMarine Information Infrastructure (eMII) at www.imos.org.au. Current data will be displayed visually through particle trajectory graphs (see image below) as well as being available for download.
particle trajectory graph
Images of wave height and wave direction will also be available on the web.
