| Summary: | Credit Australia's Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) is enabled by the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). It is operated by a consortium of institutions as an unincorporated joint venture, with the University of Tasmania as Lead Agent. Credit Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) Credit CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere The Sea Surface Temperature (SST) sub-facility aims to enable accurate, quality controlled, SST data to be supplied in near real-time (within 24 hours) from SOOPs and research vessels in oceans worldwide. Remotely sensed sea surface temperature (SST) data is an important input to ocean, numerical weather prediction, seasonal and climate models. In order to improve calibration and validation of satellite SST in the Australian region, there is a need for high quality in situ SST observations with greater timeliness, spatial and temporal coverage than is currently available. Regions particularly lacking in moored or drifting buoy observations are the Western Pacific Tropical Warm Pool region (Indonesia), close to the Australian coast (including Bass Strait) and the Southern Ocean. Current ship SST observations from ships of opportunity (SOOP) are either of questionable accuracy or difficult to access in a timely manner. There are five vessels carrying automatic weather stations (AWS) that participate in the Australian Volunteer Observing Fleet (AVOF) program and two vessels equipped with a newly designed system for real-time SST data acquisition. Their routes include the Southern Ocean, coastal Australia (Queensland to South Australia), Bass Strait, Pacific Ocean, South-East Asia and the Tasman Sea. Four AVOF vessels with hull-mounted temperature sensors (Sea Bird SBE 48) and one with a digital oceanographic thermometer (Sea Bird SBE 38, L'Astrolabe) are supplying high-quality bulk SST data hourly. There is also one passenger ferry that is currently taking SST measurements using the high-accuracy SBE 38 sensor (SeaFlyte, Hillarys Harbour-Rottnest Island), and one near ...
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