Remote sensing

Remote sensing of ocean colour for marine water quality is key to advanced monitoring technologies being incorporated into the eReefs portfolio. Satellite remote sensing is the only observational technique able to deliver broad area coverage of the reef and lagoon system on a near-daily basis (cloud cover permitting), providing snapshots of the spatial variation in water optical properties and concentrations of constituents. The primary use of remote sensing data is for monitoring water conditions, but it is also useful data for constraining hydrodynamic models.

CSIRO has been researching and developing techniques for applying remote sensing in the conditions particular to the GBR over the past decade. The eReefs project continues to provide the opportunity and resources to transition the CSIRO experimental algorithms from a development platform into a research-production environment, and to routinely link the remote sensing to the modelling.

The remote sensing system has been extended to utilise a new series of satellite sensors, and to better represent the range of water types found in the GBR.  The pages in this section provide further information on the components of the remote sensing system and how they deliver enhanced observations to inform reef management.

Remote Sensing in eReefs:

How it works
Regional Algorithms
Satellite Data and ProcessingAccess to Data
History Of Remote Sensing In eReefs
Further reading