AIMS eReefs
Simulated true colour (GBR4 BGC v3.1 baseline)
Note: The near-real time GBR1 and GBR4 models (including hydro, river tracer and BGC) are currently paused at December 17th 2023 due to infrastructure damage from the recent flooding events around the Daintree River region (see here). These floods have damaged the real-time river temperature and flow sensors across surrounding catchments, and Queensland government is working to recover and restore these as quickly as possible. We will provide further updates when available.
A key challenge with validating the BGC model is that the number of in-situ observations is very limited compared with the geographic scope and detail of the model. To help overcome this limitation the CSIRO eReefs BGC model simulates the light transport through the water based on the nutrients, plankton and suspended sediments. It uses this information to simulate what the ocean would look like if it were imaged by the NASA MODIS satellite. This allows the model results to be directly compared with satellite imagery to check its performance and skill.
This visualisation shows the estimated colour image as would be seen by the MODIS satellite, except with no clouds. While we don't create a direct comparison with the MODIS imagery here on this site, you can view the MODIS imagery via the NASA WorldView browser.