Current magnitude average at 2.35m (GBR1)
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Note: The near-real time GBR1 and GBR4 models (including hydro, river tracer and BGC) are currently paused at January 17th 2024 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.
This page shows the magnitude of the surface sea water current on the Great Barrier Reef based on the 1km eReefs Hydrodynamic model.
The magnitude shown in these videos and images tells you the speed of the water, but with no indication of the direction. In shallow areas this information can be useful in understanding the amount of sediment mixing caused by tides and the amount of shear stress (side ways rubbing) that these areas might experience. Shallow areas that have a high current magnitude are likely to be different habitats.
For details of this dataset and access to the data see the eReefs CSIRO Hydrodynamic model (Temperature, Salinity, Wind, Current) Summaries (AIMS) metadata page.
Source data
The videos/images on this page are based on the 1km eReefs Hydrodynamic model (v2.0) of the Great Barrier Reef. The raw data is available from NCI THREDDS server (hourly) and the aggregate data from the AIMS eReefs THREDDS server (daily, monthly, yearly, all). These map layers are also available for inspection as an interactive map.
Recent data
The results are updated in near-real-time, however sometimes they can be behind real time up to 2 weeks. This happens due to delays in the model runs being held up for technical reasons or delays in source data that drive the model. This visualisation portal can sometimes also delay the products by up to 1 day. To check the latest available model data look at the date on the NCI THREDDS server. If the model data is more up to date than this portal let us know.
Erratum
From 28 Dec 2014 - 29 Dec 2014 and from 1 Dec - 10 Dec 2021, the forcing data for the GBR1 eReefs model was incorrect due to a process failure while extracting the relevant ACCESS data. This resulted in static tides and winds during this period, leading to incorrect model outputs during Dec 2014 and 2021, with some carry over error into Jan 2022. This forcing error led to a decrease in water mixing resulting in the temperature building up several degrees hotter than it should and to the flood plumes from the Fitzroy and Burnett moving in the wrong direction.
CSIRO are correcting this problem by re-running the model from Dec 2021 for several months to replace this section of the data. This warning will be updated when this change has been made.