The Deep Water Moorings Facility (formerly known as the Australian Bluewater Observing System) provides the coordination of national efforts in the sustained observation of open ocean properties with particular emphasis on observations important to climate and carbon cycle studies. This collection contains time-series observations of current velocity from moorings deployed by the facility. The primary parameters are the zonal, meridional and vertical components of the current speed within different bins in the water column, the height above the instrument of each bin, the pressure (when available) and depth at the instrument. Temperature at the instrument is also usually measured. The observations were made using a range of Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) and Acoustic Doppler Current Meter (single point measurement) instruments. This Deep Water Moorings' dataset includes discrete locations south of Tasmania, off Queensland and Indonesia.

The Victoria Moorings Sub-Facility is part of the National Mooring Network Facility. Victorian Moorings is responsible for a mooring deployed in the Bonney Coast region off Cape Bridgewater (Victoria). This region of the Victorian coastline has strong seasonal upwelling and supports one of the most productive regions of temperate Australian coastal waters. Not only does this region support large populations of migratory whales, fur seals, sharks, and bluefin tuna, it is also an important region from fisheries. Victorian Moorings fill a historical gap in the national backbone or coastal moorings, providing valuable information on the hydrodynamics of upwelling processes that underpin the productivity off the Bonney Coast.

Fishing Vessels as Ships of Opportunity (FishSOOP) is an IMOS Sub-Facility working with fishers to collect real-time temperature and depth data by installing equipment on a network of commercial fishing vessels using a range of common fishing gear. Every day, fishing vessels operate broadly across the productive areas of Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone where we have few subsurface ocean measurements. The Sub-Facility is utilising this observing opportunity to cost-effectively increase the spatial and temporal resolution of subsurface temperature data in Australia’s inshore, shelf, upper-slope, and offshore waters. The data is currently returned to each fishing boat in near-real time, so skippers can relate their catches to temperature-at-depth information. The same data will also be collated to provide oceanographers with quality-controlled data for ground-truthing coastal models and to improve analysis and forecasts of oceanic conditions. The IMOS funded data collection follows on from a Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) funded pilot project (2022-007) with the University of New South Wales, Fishwell Consulting and IMOS. In the first year of the project 32 commercial fishing vessels had been equipped with sensors. They covered a range of fishing vessels, including scallop dredges, tuna longlines, shark gillnets, otter board trawlers, lobster pots, fish traps, prawn trawlers, squid jigs, and danish seines. We also had a pre-trial test with one boat the year prior, with the sensor installed on a trawler.

This collection consists of observations from the deep-water moorings at the Southern Ocean Time Series (SOTS) site in the sub-Antarctic Zone (SAZ), southwest of Tasmania, near 47S, 142E. The moorings are 1) the Pulse biogeochemistry mooring (instrumentation was moved to the FluxPulse mooring in 2016, and then to the SOFS mooring); 2) the Sub-Antarctic Zone (SAZ) sediment trap mooring; and 3) the Southern Ocean Flux Station (SOFS) (the instrumentation was briefly moved to the FluxPulse mooring in 2016). All three are operated by the Australian Bluewater Observing System. Data are processed in delayed mode and available in NetCDF format. The Southern Ocean Time Series (SOTS) sub-facility provides high temporal resolution observations in sub-Antarctic waters. Observations are broad and include measurements of physical, chemical and biogeochemical parameters from multiple deep-water moorings. The emphasis is on inter-annual variations of upper ocean properties and their influence on exchange with the deep ocean. The time-series provided permit investigation into issues of ocean physics and chemistry, climate change, carbon cycling and biogeochemical controls on marine productivity. The Pulse biogeochemistry mooring is used to measure upper ocean carbon cycle and phytoplankton productivity processes. Measured parameters include temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, nitrate, clorophyll and turbidity. This mooring also collects water samples for measures of dissolved carbon and nutrients, and phytoplankton microscopic identification. The SAZ sediment trap mooring is used to collect sinking particles to quantify carbon transports, and provides current meter measurements and a deep ocean CTD to measure heat contents below the depth of Argo profiling float measurements. The SOFS mooring has dual sets of radiometers, temperature and humidity sensors, precipitation gauges and sonic anemometers, providing the measurements necessary for computing air-sea fluxes of heat, momentum and mass. Surface photosynthetically active radiation and surface UV are also measured, to help assess light available for phytoplankton production.

The Southern Australia Moorings Sub-Facility is part of the National Mooring Network Facility. This sub-facility is establishing a national reference transect of moorings and measurements off South Australia, which includes all parameters measured by the IMOS National Reference Stations (NRS). The South Australia moorings sub-facility is based at the South Australian Research and Development Institute in Adelaide and is responsible for a total of five moorings. These moorings are deployed to continuously monitor the large seasonal coastal upwelling of water that occurs along the region's continental shelf during summer. This upwelling brings cold, nutrient rich waters onto the shelf which boosts primary productivity, creating one of the most productive coastal marine ecosystems in Australian waters. The five moorings measure an array of physical and biological properties and are a combination of four regional moorings and a National Reference Station (biological sampling at SAM5CB, SAM8SG, SAMGSV, SAMUSG and NRS). The regional moorings consist of one shelf mooring located on the same isobath as the NRS and in the path of the upwelled/downwelled exchange, a mooring located near the mouth of Spencer Gulf to measure possible winter outflow of saline rich water, and two moorings situated in Upper Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent. The NRS is located at a convergence point of isobaths and monitors upwelling and outflow events as well as long-term variations in the strength of the coastal current. There are six discontinued moorings that were once part of this sub-facility, for which data is still available: M1 Deep Slope Mooring (SAM1DS) and M6 Investigator Strait Mooring (SAM6IS) were both discontinued in 2009, M4 Canyon Mooring (SAM4CY) and M2 Cabbage Patch Mooring (SAM2CP) were both discontinued in 2010, and M4 Mid-Slope Mooring (SAM3MS) and M7 Deep-Slope Mooring (SAM7DS) which were discontinued in 2013-2014.

Fishing Vessels as Ships of Opportunity (FishSOOP) is an IMOS Sub-Facility working with fishers to collect real-time temperature and depth data by installing equipment on a network of commercial fishing vessels using a range of common fishing gear. Every day, fishing vessels operate broadly across the productive areas of Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone where we have few subsurface ocean measurements. The Sub-Facility is utilising this observing opportunity to cost-effectively increase the spatial and temporal resolution of subsurface temperature data in Australia’s inshore, shelf, upper-slope, and offshore waters. The data is currently returned to each fishing boat in near-real time, so skippers can relate their catches to temperature-at-depth information. The same data will also be collated to provide oceanographers with quality-controlled data for ground-truthing coastal models and to improve analysis and forecasts of oceanic conditions. The IMOS funded data collection follows on from a Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) funded pilot project (2022-007) with the University of New South Wales, Fishwell Consulting and IMOS. In the first year of the project 32 commercial fishing vessels had been equipped with sensors. They covered a range of fishing vessels, including scallop dredges, tuna longlines, shark gillnets, otter board trawlers, lobster pots, fish traps, prawn trawlers, squid jigs, and danish seines. We also had a pre-trial test with one boat the year prior, with the sensor installed on a trawler.

The Deep Water Arrays (DA) sub-facility targets observations of deep ocean currents and properties needed to monitor and understand the role of the ocean on climate and climate variability. The arrays monitor ocean circulation and property variability in the ocean surrounding Australia and provide estimates of the ocean contribution to the regional and global circulation, heat and freshwater content and change. They will contribute to improved estimates of the regional and global sea level budget, improvements to the climate model simulations via direct comparison with observations, assimilation and development of improved model physics and parameterisations. This sub-facility includes observational programs based on moored conductivity-temperature-depth sensors and current meter arrays in deep waters that are specifically targeted to monitor formation of Antarctic Bottom Water, interbasin exchange and major boundary currents. The Deep Water array sites include : 1) The Adelie Land Coast deep shelf to observe outflows of newly forming Antarctic Bottom water – the Polynya array. Initially the array was deployed near the Mertz glacier, then redeployed near the Totten Glacier (array ceased in 2015). 2) Timor Passage and Ombia Strait, to monitor the interbasin Indian-Pacific Ocean exchange and the upper limb of the global overturning circulation – the Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) array (array ceased in 2015). 3) The east coast of Australia, near Brisbane, to monitor the East Australian Current transport – the EAC array (array cease in 2022).

The National Mooring Network Facility (formerly known as the Australian National Mooring Network (ANMN)), is a series of national reference stations and regional moorings designed to monitor particular oceanographic phenomena in Australian coastal ocean waters. This collection contains wavetime-series observations from moorings deployed by the facility at the Darwin and Yongala National Reference Stations and the following regional moorings: Beagle Gulf (DARBGF), Heron Island South (GBRHIS) and One Tree East (GBROTE). The primary parameters are temperature, pressure and depth of the instrument, and many wave related parameters. The observations were made using either an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) or an AWAC ADCP (Acoustic Wave And Current Profiler).

The IMOS Ships of Opportunity Expendable Bathythermographs Sub-Facility was formerly known as the Underway Expendable Bathythermographs (XBT), a research and data collection project working within the former IMOS Ship of Opportunity Multi-Disciplinary Underway Network Sub-Facility. XBT real-time data is available through the IMOS portal. Data is acquired by technicians who ride the ships of opportunity in order to perform high density sampling along well established transit lines. The data acquisition system used is the Quoll developed by Turo Technology. Data collected and is stored in netcdf files, with real-time data messages (JJVV bathy messages) created on the ship and sent to shore by iridium sbd. This is inserted onto the GTS by our colleagues at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. The full resolution data is collected from the ship and returned for processing to scientists at CSIRO in Hobart. It undergoes a full scientific QC process which identifies both bad data and oceanic features such as eddies, fronts and temperature inversions. Finally, the data is distributed to the GTSPP global data acquisition centre in Washington DC where it is made freely available to all. This SOOP dataset covers waters around Australia and across to New Zealand.

The QLD Elusive Reef Mooring (IMOS Platform Code: GBRELR) is one of five moorings, offshore from Gladstone in Queensland, Australia at Latitude: -21.030, Longitude: 152.879 (approximate, adjustments with each deployment). The mooring was recovered in November 2014, and not redeployed. The mooring’s sensors are adjusted and potentially changed with each deployment, below is an example from 2008: - SBE37 CTD - SBE19Plus CTD - NORTEK ADCP (wave data) - SBE39 temperature recorder