Standard Presentation Australian Marine Sciences Association Annual Meeting 2023

New Open Access Multi-decadal Ocean Temperature Marine Heatwave Data Products   (#303)

Michael Hemming 1 , Moninya Roughan 1 , Amandine Schaeffer 1
  1. University of New South Wales, UNSW Sydney, NSW, Australia

Australia is in the enviable position of having some of the longest coastal ocean datasets in the world. Historically, accessing and handling the data has been a challenge, requiring the user to download individual files for aggregation, apply QC, and then calculate statistics, such as percentiles. Here we present new data products at four long term coastal sites that include aggregated temperatures, daily temperature climatologies, and indices/metrics for extreme ocean temperature events, such as marine heatwaves and cold-spells. These data products provide information at multiple depths throughout the water column and use ocean temperature data records of more than 65 years. We show the utility of these data products through relatable case studies. Such open access data is becoming increasingly valuable as ocean ecosystems and the networks that rely on them will come under increased pressure from a changing climate system.