The Bureau of Meteorology provides the Australian and international maritime communities with weather forecasts, warnings and observations for coastal waters areas and high seas around Australia. Generally most of these services are provided routinely throughout the day, while marine weather warnings may be issued at any time when the need becomes apparent. Because of the complex nature of the sea, the Bureau of Meteorology uses advanced computer models to predict the physical characteristics of the ocean. These computer forecasts are used by meteorologists in the preparation of marine forecasts and warnings. The forecasts include wind, weather, sea and swell and are intended to describe the average conditions over specified areas. Marine forecasts have been enhanced by the inclusion of ocean currents and sea-surface temperature forecasts through the BLUElink ocean forecasting initiative. The Numerical Weather and Oceanographic Prediction (NWOP) Products webpage provides links to datasets on sea surface winds, SST, and wave height around the coast of Australia and globally.

This dataset contains CTD (conductivity, temperature, depth) data obtained from the Australian Antarctic Marine Biological Ecosystem Research (AAMBER) 86/87 cruise of the Nella Dan, during Feb - Apr 1987. This cruise is the last out of a series of six, conducting a long term field survey on krill, fish and zooplankton. 94 CTD casts were taken in the Prydz Bay region, as a supplement to the krill and fish research program. Casts were made to the bottom over the continental shelf, and to either 200 m or 1000 m off the shelf. This dataset is a subset of the whole cruise data. The fields in this dataset are: Pressure Temperature Sigma-T Salinity Geopotential Anomaly Specific volume Anomaly samples deviation conduction

This dataset contains CTD (conductivity, temperature, depth) data obtained from the ADBEX II (= SIBEX I) cruise of the Nella Dan, during Jan - Feb 1984. 22 CTD casts were taken in the Prydz Bay region.

This dataset contains CTD (conductivity, temperature, depth) data obtained from the GEOSCIENCE of the Nella Dan, during Jan - Mar 1982. There are six other cruises which also collected oceanographic data, who are primarily involved with conducting a long term field survey on krill and other zooplankton. 7 CTD casts were taken in the Prydz Bay region, as a supplement to the seismic survey. As a result, the CTD locations were not always ideal for oceanographic purposes.

Oceanic conditions are a critical factor in the earth's climate system. They directly influence fisheries and most aquaculture endeavours, while knowledge of them is essential for such diverse applications as coastal construction, maritime safety, marine pollution response and sustainable management of the marine environment. Oceanographic Services comprise some of the most recent additions to the suite of services provided by the Bureau of Meteorology. Since taking responsibility for operating the national centre for tidal expertise (the National Tidal Centre or NTC) in 2004, operational oceanographic services in the Bureau have grown rapidly. With the introduction of the routine provision of several new products from the BLUElink ocean prediction system, Oceanographic Services now encompass a substantial set of informative products which support the safer and more intelligent use of the ocean by users who undertake a wide range of activities on or near Australia's great oceanic environments. BLUElink is a multi-million dollar initiative by the Bureau, the CSIRO and the Royal Australian Navy to provide the nation with a major step forward in our ongoing understanding of the behaviour of the vast coastal and ocean areas in our neighbourhood, and for our ability to operate in those environments more safely, more effectively and for a more sustainable future. The Bureau has been providing tidal services, including predictions, tsunami services, ocean surface wave predictions, and a range of products concerning ocean temperature including sea surface temperature (SST) analyses and temperature-depth analyses, for some time. The new products from the BLUElink system now provide both analyses and daily forecasts out to 7 days, for a range of surface oceanographic variables, including SST, surface currents, surface salinity, and sea level elevation anomaly. These products support improvement to regional climate forecasts, ship routing to achieve greater fuel savings, improvement to maritime rescue and safety capabilities, and the identification of changes in coastal water temperatures, salinity and currents that directly influence reefs, aquaculture and all forms of marine life. Oceanographic Services encompasses a wide range of National and International Projects associated with the Bureau of Meteorology. These include the Australian Baseline Sea Level Monitoring Project, BLUElink Ocean Forecasting Australia, the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS), the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre (JATWC), and the South Pacific Sea Level and Climate Monitoring Project. To learn more about these projects and view their online data, click on the links below.

Wave height, direction and sea surface temperature are recorded daily at 12 sites on the Coast of Queensland. Cairns, Weipa, Townsville, Mackay, Hay Point, Emu Park, Moreton Bay, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Tweed River, Caloundra, Mooloolaba are monitored daily by waverider buoys fitted with a accelerometer. This website also contains data from Storm surges from Mornington Island down to Caloundra.

Enhancement of Measurements on Ships of Opportunity (SOOP)-Sea Surface Temperature (SST) aims to supply near real-time SST data (within 24 hours) from SOOPs and research vessels in the Australian region. The data files contain SST underway observations from an SBE 38 sensor installed in a seawater intake collected on trips of a French research and Antarctic resupply vessel participating in the Australian Volunteer Observing Fleet (RV L'Astrolabe - FHZI) between Hobart (Tasmania) and Dumont D'Urville (Antarctica). The voyages take place during the Austral summer. The data are instantaneous hourly measurements. The data have been quality controlled by the Bureau of Meteorology.

Through a collaborative effort with NOAA/NCEP and NWS Honolulu, the University of Hawaii has implemented a global-scale WaveWatch III (WW3) 7-day model with a 5-day hourly forecast at approximately 50-km or 0.5-deg resolution. The global model is forced with NOAA/NCEP's Global Forecast System (GFS) winds. This model is designed to capture the large-scale ocean waves and provide spectral boundary conditions for the Hawaii and other Pacific regional WW3 models. While considerable effort has been made to implement all model components in a thorough, correct, and accurate manner, numerous sources of error are possible. As such, please use these data with the caution appropriate for any ocean related activity.