WAMSI 2 Kimberley Node - Project 1.4 - Remote Sensing in support of marine environmental monitoring

The Kimberley region is vast, remote and difficult and expensive to access and carry out field work in. Remote sensing technologies can provide cost effective methods to gather historical and baseline data at synoptic scales as well as near-real-time observations from metre to kilometre resolution. The Kimberley Node Project 1.4 focused on monitoring turbidity with reference to its impact on the water column and substrate light environment. The projects objectives were to analyse uncertainties of remotely sensed turbidity products by comparison of different algorithms and different resolution products with each other and with archived in situ data; and to analyse time series of remotely sensed turbidity data to provide first-stage pilot products that may be applicable for future use as marine management tools.

In-situ water quality data was obtained from a number of cruises that occurred along the Kimberley coastline including Collier Bay; Walcott Inlet, Outer King Sound, Koolama Bay and Lesueur Islands, Van Diemen Gulf and the Pilbara Coast and used to validate remote sensing products. Data associated with this metadata record relates to in-situ water quality. MODIS satellite data obtained from IMOS has not been stored as part of this record, but can be accessed direct via IMOS (http://www.imos.org.au/).