Taming Australia's last frontier
2009
With more than 6 million km2 of ocean comprising
the third-largest Exclusive Economic
Zone (EEZ) of undersea resources in the
world, the marine environment around Australia is
justifiably termed that nation’s "last frontier." The
increasing economical exploitation of its resources
and the sustainability of its ecosystems demand an
accurate knowledge of the circulation and structure of
its oceans. Accomplishing this requires observations
on a regular basis—in the same way meteorologists
follow weather—and a significant investment to support
it. Every day, marine managers and researchers
worldwide draw on ever-increasing information networks
fed by global observing systems, ocean general
circulation models, data assimilation, and short-term
ocean forecasts. This nexus of ocean observations and
ocean modeling is key to the recent revolution in the
realm of oceanic and ocean–atmosphere research.
The implementation of a multidisciplinary Integrated
Marine Observing System (IMOS) and, simultaneously,
the first operational global and regional
ocean forecasting system in the Southern Hemisphere
(BLUElink) is a big first step forward to increasing
our knowledge of the oceans around Australia. Together,
IMOS and BLUElink inform decisions about
protecting marine biodiversity, risk management for
sea operations and offshore industries, recreational
pursuits, hazard prediction, and national security.
In 2006, the Australian government launched
IMOS (www.imos.org.au), a US$40 million national
initiative (with a nearly equal amount invested by
universities and other national research agencies)
designed to monitor the oceans around Australia and
provide value-added products as well as free, open,
and timely access to data. IMOS records and analyzes
changes in the marine environment, from the major
boundary and ocean currents to the 30,000-km-long
Australian coast.
Based on the need for regular high-quality
analyses and forecasts for the oceans surrounding
Australia, the government also launched project
BLUElink. The initiative took advantage of both the
increasing number of global ocean observations in the
last decade and the IMOS project to deliver in 2007
the first operational global ocean forecasting system
with a focus on the Asian–Australian region (www.
bom.gov.au/bluelink).
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