A Vaisala WXT520 integrated weather station has been installed on RP2, a 6m steel pole which has been installed within the lagoon of Lizard Island on the northern Great Barrier Reef. The sensor-relay pole provides a platform for the installation of sensors to measure and monitor water conditions within the lagoon of Lizard Island. The pole has real time communications using 900MHz spread spectrum radio back to a base station on Lizard Island.The weather station provides measurement of air temperature (Deg. C.), humidity as relative percent, barometric pressure (milliBars or hPa), rainfall amount, intensity and duration, hail amount, intensity and duration (not common on coral reefs!) and wind speed and direction. The wind speed and direction and processed into scalar and vector (directional) based readings and presented as 10 and 30 minute averages to give mean values and maximum values. From these you can get the average wind conditions at either 10 minute or 30 minute periods as well as the gust or maximum wind conditions.The weather station is connected via an SDI-12 interface to a Campbell Scientific CR1000 logger which uses a RF411 radio to transmit the data, every 10 minutes, to the base station on Lizard Island and then a Telstra nextG link is used to send the data back to AIMS.Identical weather stations are also on Heron Island (southern GBR), One Tree Island (near by) and Orpheus Island (central GBR). A light sensor is also located on the Island itself to give measures of PAR. The weather station is to provide on-reef weather conditions to allow the interaction with the atmosphere and the water to be understood. It is NOT set up as a meteorological grade station (for example it is too low to the water) but rather to give an indication of the atmospheric conditions at the surface of the water actually on the reef. If you need meteorological grade observations then use the data available for near by locations from www.bom.gov.au Power SupplyBattery Backed (1 x 33Ahr AGM with Solar Regulator), 4 x 5W Solar Panel Supply.Logger Settings - Pakbus Address - 150Logger Setup as router (isRouter = True)SDC7 comms board rate set at 34KSDC7 neighbours range: 1 - 180SDC7 Beacon: 3600Over-Reef RF Network - RF411 attached to the CSIO port of the loggerRadio Settings - Active Interface - Datalogger CSDCSDC Address 7Protocol: Pakbus awareRadio Net Address - 0Hop Sequence - 0Power mode - Retry level - Low

This dataset contains meteorological and sea temperature data from two automatic weather stations moored at different times and locations within Cleveland Bay (Townsville). The first weather station was deployed on Channel Marker #10 (19° 11.95S, 146° 51.89 E). Data from this weather station covers the period 3rd July 1990 to 21st October 1992. This weather station was then removed and redeployed on Cape Cleveland. The current weather station is located on channel marker #S5, approximately 1 kilometre from Bremner Point on Magnetic Island (19° 09.35S, 146°52.87E). Data collection from this station commenced on the 7th December, 1999. These data are collected to support scientific research at AIMS. Data are made available on request to other researchers and to the public. The current weather station is a Campbell Scientific Australia System. Data recorded: Sea Temperature (1.9m and 8.5m at MSL), Barometric Pressure, Air Temperature, Solar Radiation (PAR), Wind Direction True (scalar averaged), Wind Speed True (10 min average prior to every half hour and maximum wind gust). 1. Operation and Weather Sensors The weather stations collect and store data in electronic memory every half-hour. A central base station calls each remote station regularly using HF radio or telephone lines. The data is transmitted over the radio as a frequency shift keyed signal, organised as packets of information. Errors are detected using parity and check sum methods. Invalid packets are identified by the Base Station, which requests they be sent again. This concept allows recovery of a very high percentage of the data despite poor communications. Remote stations store data for 21 days. Features such as automatic operation, remote control, remote time setting, built in diagnostics, have been developed and incorporated. The sensors are a key part of a weather station. The following are chosen considering the cost, reliability and accuracy. * R.M.Young manufactures the wind sensor, a model number 05103. It is a propeller type with the advantages of being highly linear, highly interchangeable and having a low threshold. Wind direction is measured as the direction the wind is coming from. * The solar radiation sensor is an Under Water Quantum Sensor made by Licor. It measures light in terms of its "Photosynthetically Active Radiation" (PAR). The spectral response is defined and weighted. Drift due to aging of the filters has proven to be a problem, but this applies to similar units too. * Temperature sensors are all Omega Interchangeable Thermistors. These are interchangeable and have high accuracy, but reliability has proven a problem. We are considering alternatives. * The barometric sensor was a modified Aanderaa type on earlier stations. The Mk2 stations were fitted with a Weathertronics Unit. Now all stations are Mk3 stations fitted with a Vaisala barometer which is more interchangeable and more accurate. 2. System Accuracy System accuracy is calculated as the sum of errors caused by: * Calibration * Interchanging sensors * Drift with time * Effects of an ambient temperature range from 0-40 degrees C. The following are the specifications of the sensors used with Mk3 stations. A new sensor suite will be used with Mk5 stations, partly based on the Vaisala WXT510 weather sensor. Both the temperature and wind sensors are interchangeable, and not individually calibrated, though some individual sensors have been checked against standards. * Air Temperature: Interchangeable thermistor and electronics is within +/- 0.4 deg. C, with a 30 seconds settling time in air. There are additional errors due to the aspiration of the temperature screen at low wind speeds. * Water temperature: Interchangeable thermistor and electronics is within +/- 0.4 deg. C, with a 30 minutes settling time in water. A higher precision in situ calibration is normally used (around +/- 0.1 degrees), traceable to a 0.04 degrees standard. * Solar radiation (PAR): +/- 5% of reading. Sensor drift is approximately -4% per year initially. * Barometric pressure: +/- 1 hecto Pascal. * Wind speed: 2% of reading +/- 0.1% FSD. * Wind direction: 2% of reading +/- 0.1% FSD. Electrical settling time for solar radiation and wind parameters is 7 seconds. This is necessary for anti-aliasing filters. Mk1 and Mk2 stations averaged 16 samples over the 16 seconds before logging. Mk3 stations use a continuously averaging software system. The wind readings are vector averaged, so direction is accounted for properly. Calibration procedures and routines are detailed on the Engineering website. 3. Wind Sensor Specification The following are additional specifications of the wind sensors used with Mk3 stations. A new sensor will be used with Mk5 stations. Wind sensors are mounted at a nominal 10 meters above water. The R.M. Young sensor has the following characteristics: * Wind Speed Range: 0-60 m/s Pitch: 29.4 cm air passes per rev. Distance constant: 2.7 m for 63% recovery * Wind Direction Range: 360 deg, with 5 deg electrically open at north Damping ratio: 0.25 Delay distance: 1.5 m for 50% recovery Threshold: 1.0 m/s @ 10 deg. Displacement: 1.5 m/s @ 5 deg. displacement Damped w/length: 7.4 m Undamped w/length: 7.2 m 4. Underwater Temperature Sensors These sensors are interchangeable thermistors in Mk3 stations. They can be mounted a significant distance from the weather station, using a 2 wire connection. The basic accuracy is due to the use of interchangeable units. However improved accuracy is obtained by calibrating against a precision reference sensor in situ. These are in turn calibrated against a standard traceable to 0.04 degrees.

A series of six 6m steel poles have been installed in the lagoon of Heron Island as part of the sensor network deployment at Heron Island. The poles serve two purposes; their primary purpose is to form the backbone of a wireless network that covers the entire lagoon system and secondly they themselves support a range of sensors mounted onto the pole or leading away from the pole. One pole (RP5) also supports a Vaisala WXT520 weather station.This record is for Sensor Relay Pole 3. The pole is solar powered and routes data from the Sensor Floats and other Sensor Relay Poles back to the Base Station located on Heron Island. The system uses the Campbell Scientific CR1000 loggers and RF411 Spread-Spectrum radios to process and route the data. The poles also can support a range of sensors, this pole also has a simple bottom mounted thermistor using the MEA thermistors.The unit will be serviced every six months and will be used in the future for attaching new sets of sensors. The pole works primarily as a network repeater, it collects data from other poles and the Sensor Floats and routes it back to the Base Station either directly or via another pole. The poles are spaced approximately every two kilometers with the exception of those closest to the island, the base station on the island is on a 19M tower and so a greater range was found for the first set of poles.Each pole therefore provides a wireless data network in a two kilometer radius, the combination of the six poles provides coverage for the entire lagoon. The height of the base station gives around a five kilometre range around the island itself.The poles are 6M in height constructed from galvanized steel with a solar powered instrument top consisting of a battery unit powered from the solar panels, Campbell CR1000 logger and Campbell RF411 radio. The logger can support a range of interfaces and is suitable for connection to a range of instruments.The initial instrumentation is just a single base mounted MEA thermistor, the intention is to add more instruments as time and opportunity allow. Power SupplyBattery Backed (1 x 33Ahr AGM with Solar Regulator), 4 x 5W Solar Panel Supply.Logger Settings - Pakbus Address - 130Logger Setup as router (isRouter = True)CSDC7 comms board rate set at 34KSDC7 neighbours range: 1 - 180SDC7 Beacon: 3600Over-Reef RF Network - RF411 attached to the CSIO port of the loggerRadio Settings - Active Interface - Datalogger CSDCSDC Address 7Protocol: Pakbus awareRadio Net Address - 0Hop Sequence - 0Power mode - Retry level - Low

Sensor network infrastructure was installed at Rib Reef in the central Great Barrier Reef off Townsville, Australia. The infrastructure consists of a single 1300 mm buoy located off the north (front) of the reef. The buoy has an Inductive Modem (IM) line that extends from the buoy to the bottom and then along the bottom for around 50 m and then rises to flotation located 9 m below the surface. Instruments are located on this riser to give a profile through the water column.The station is designed to measure temperature of the water column at the front of the reef and in particular to detect upwelling and other events where warmer bottom water is pushed across the shelf onto the reefs. This not only indicates processes operating across the shelf but also conditions when coral bleaching may be more common. The station is part of a larger network of real time monitoring stations deployed to give real time information about environmental conditions on reefs. This station is located to detect movement of bottom water across the continental shelf and in particular upwelling events pushed from the Coral Sea into the larger lagoon of the Great Barrier Reef. Such events are linked to warm water events on reefs including coral bleaching. The FAIMMS Project is part of the GBROOS or Great Barrier Reef Ocean Observing System project which in turn is part of the Australian Integrated Marine Observing System or IMOS.

Sensor network infrastructure was installed at Heron Island in the southern Great Barrier Reef off Gladstone, Australia. The infrastructure consists of a base station mounted on the existing communications tower, a number of network relay poles installed in the lagoon and a number of buoys which carry the actual sensors. The initial design is to monitor the flow of water through the lagoon which is often 'ponded' due to the high coral rim to the lagoon, this creates complex in and out flows and flushing of the lagoon system. The deployment in August 2008 consisted of the base station using the Telstra nextG service, six 6m relay poles located in the lagoon and five sensor floats also located in the lagoon. The poles carry one bottom thermistor, the floats currently have surface thermistors only. Additional instrumentation will be added by the end of 2008. The project looks to deploy sensor networks at seven sites along the Great Barrier Reef to measure a range of physical parameters at a range of scales. The project will install communications, data and platform infrastructure that will support future sensor work looking at biological and chemical parameters. This project is part of the Wireless Sensor Networks Facility (formerly known as Facility for The Automated Intelligent Monitoring of Marine Systems (FAIMMS)), part of the Great Barrier Reef Ocean Observing System project (GBROOS) (IMOS)

A series of six 6m steel poles have been installed in the lagoon of Heron Island as part of the sensor network deployment at Heron Island. The poles serve two purposes; their primary purpose is to form the backbone of a wireless network that covers the entire lagoon system and secondly they themselves support a range of sensors mounted onto the pole or leading away from the pole. One pole (RP5) also supports a Vaisala WXT520 weather station.This record is for Sensor Relay Pole 4. The pole is solar powered and routes data from the Sensor Floats and other Sensor Relay Poles back to the Base Station located on Heron Island. The system uses the Campbell Scientific CR1000 loggers and RF411 Spread-Spectrum radios to process and route the data. The poles also can support a range of sensors, this pole also has a simple bottom mounted thermistor using the MEA thermistors.The unit will be serviced every six months and will be used in the future for attaching new sets of sensors. The pole works primarily as a network repeater, it collects data from other poles and the Sensor Floats and routes it back to the Base Station either directly or via another pole. The poles are spaced approximately every two kilometers with the exception of those closest to the island, the base station on the island is on a 19M tower and so a greater range was found for the first set of poles.Each pole therefore provides a wireless data network in a two kilometer radius, the combination of the six poles provides coverage for the entire lagoon. The height of the base station gives around a five kilometre range around the island itself.The poles are 6M in height constructed from galvanized steel with a solar powered instrument top consisting of a battery unit powered from the solar panels, Campbell CR1000 logger and Campbell RF411 radio. The logger can support a range of interfaces and is suitable for connection to a range of instruments.The initial instrumentation is just a single base mounted MEA thermistor, the intention is to add more instruments as time and opportunity allow. Power SupplyBattery Backed (1 x 33Ahr AGM with Solar Regulator), 4 x 5W Solar Panel Supply.Logger Settings - Pakbus Address - 140Logger Setup as router (isRouter = True)CSDC7 comms board rate set at 34KSDC7 neighbours range: 1 - 180SDC7 Beacon: 3600Over-Reef RF Network - RF411 attached to the CSIO port of the loggerRadio Settings - Active Interface - Datalogger CSDCSDC Address 7Protocol: Pakbus awareRadio Net Address - 0Hop Sequence - 0Power mode - Retry level - Low

A Vaisala WXT520 integrated weather station has been installed on RP3, a 6m steel pole, which has been installed at Orpheus Island on the central Great Barrier Reef. The sensor-relay pole provides a platform for the installation of sensors to measure and monitor water conditions at Orpheus Island. The pole has real time communications using 900MHz spread spectrum radio back to a base station on Orpheus Island.The weather station provides measurement of air temperature (Deg. C.), humidity as relative percent, barometric pressure (milliBars or hPa), rainfall amount, intensity and duration, hail amount, intensity and duration (not common on coral reefs!) and wind speed and direction. The wind speed and direction and processed into scalar and vector (directional) based readings and presented as 10 and 30 minute averages to give mean values and maximum values. From these you can get the average wind conditions at either 10 minute or 30 minute periods as well as the gust or maximum wind conditions.The weather station is connected via an SDI-12 interface to a Campbell Scientific CR1000 logger which uses a RF411 radio to transmit the data, every 10 minutes, to the base station on Orpheus Island and then a Telstra nextG link is used to send the data back to AIMS.Identical weather stations are also on Heron Island (southern GBR), One Tree Island (near by) and Lizard Island (northern GBR). A light sensor is also located on the Island itself to give measures of PAR. The weather station is to provide on-reef weather conditions to allow the interaction with the atmosphere and the water to be understood. It is NOT set up as a meteorological grade station (for example it is too low to the water) but rather to give an indication of the atmospheric conditions at the surface of the water actually on the reef. If you need meteorological grade observations then use the data available for near by locations from www.bom.gov.au Power SupplyBattery Backed (1 x 33Ahr AGM with Solar Regulator), 4 x 5W Solar Panel Supply.Logger Settings - Pakbus Address - 150Logger Setup as router (isRouter = True)SDC7 comms board rate set at 34KSDC7 neighbours range: 1 - 180SDC7 Beacon: 3600Over-Reef RF Network - RF411 attached to the CSIO port of the loggerRadio Settings - Active Interface - Datalogger CSDCSDC Address 7Protocol: Pakbus awareRadio Net Address - 0Hop Sequence - 0Power mode - Retry level - Low

A round 1.4m yellow buoy has been deployed in the Heron Island lagoon as part of the sensor network infrastructure at Heron Island in the southern Great Barrier Reef off Gladstone, Australia. The buoy is configured as a sensor-float with a Campbell Scientific logger, a spread-spectrum radio for communicating with the on-reef wireless network, a GPS and initially a surface mounted (30cm under the water surface) thermistor.The float is moored in the lagoon of Heron Island in around 3m of water and will be used to monitor the flow of water through the lagoon. It will be fitted with surface salinity and bottom depth and temperature in late 2008. The unit will be serviced every six months and will be used in the future for attaching new sets of sensors. The buoy is re-locatable and the GPS data should be used to find the current location. The buoy is one of five re-locatable platforms in the lagoon at Heron Island onto which sensor will be located. The buoys initially have a Campbell Scientific loggers powered off two 5W solar panels, a Garmin GPS unit and one thermistor located at the base of the buoy around 30cm below the water line. The buoys use a Campbell Scientific spread-spectrum radio to talk back to the base station located on Heron Island. Power SupplyBattery Backed (1 x 33Ahr AGM with Solar Regulator), 2 x 5W Solar Panel Supply.Logger Settings - Pakbus Address - 171Logger Setup as node (isRouter = False)CSDC7 comms board rate set at 34KCSD7 Beacon = 21600CSDC7 Neighbours range 1 - 1, 110 - 110, 120 - 120Over-Reef RF Network - RF411 attached to the CSIO port of the loggerRadio Settings - Active Interface - Datalogger CSDCSDC Address 7Protocol: Pakbus awareRadio Net Address - 0Hop Sequence - 0Power mode - less than 2mA 1 SecondRetry level - Low

A Vaisala WXT520 integrated weather station has been installed on RP5, a 6m steel pole, which has been installed within the lagoon of Heron Island as part of the sensor network infrastructure at Heron Island in the southern Great Barrier Reef off Gladstone, Australia.The sensor-relay pole provides a platform for the installation of sensors to measure and monitor water conditions within the lagoon of Heron Island. The pole has real time communications using 900MHz spread spectrum radio back to a base station on Heron Island.The weather station provides measurement of air temperature (Deg. C.), humidity as relative percent, barometric pressure (milliBars or hPa), rainfall amount, intensity and duration, hail amount, intensity and duration (not common on coral reefs!) and wind speed and direction. The wind speed and direction and processed into scalar and vector (directional) based readings and presented as 10 and 30 minute averages to give mean values and maximum values. From these you can get the average wind conditions at either 10 minute or 30 minute periods as well as the gust or maximum wind conditions.The weather station is connected via an SDI-12 interface to a Campbell Scientific CR1000 logger which uses a RF411 radio to transmit the data, every 10 minutes, to the base station on Heron Island and then a Telstra nextG link is used to send the data back to AIMS.Identical weather stations are also on One Tree Island (near by), Orpheus Island (central GBR) and Lizard Island (northern GBR). A light sensor is also located on the Island itself to give measures of PAR. The weather station is to provide on-reef weather conditions to allow the interaction with the atmosphere and the water to be understood. It is NOT set up as a meteorological grade station (for example it is too low to the water) but rather to give an indication of the atmospheric conditions at the surface of the water actually on the reef. If you need meteorological grade observations then use the data available for near by locations from www.bom.gov.au Power SupplyBattery Backed (1 x 33Ahr AGM with Solar Regulator), 4 x 5W Solar Panel Supply.Logger Settings - Pakbus Address - 150Logger Setup as router (isRouter = True)SDC7 comms board rate set at 34KSDC7 neighbours range: 1 - 180SDC7 Beacon: 3600Over-Reef RF Network - RF411 attached to the CSIO port of the loggerRadio Settings - Active Interface - Datalogger CSDCSDC Address 7Protocol: Pakbus awareRadio Net Address - 0Hop Sequence - 0Power mode - Retry level - Low

The Davies Reef Base Station performs two functions. The first is to act as a collection point for the sensor network platforms deployed within the reef and to in turn send the data back to the AIMS Data Centre. The second is as a platform for sensors with current sensors including two underwater PAR sensors and a still camera. The base station is co-located with the AIMS Automatic Weather Station on the Davies Reef Tower in order to optimise the use of power and communications infrastructure. The base station provides the link between the on-water platforms and the mainland systems, it polls each of the sensor floats and collects the data and then forwards this over a Telstra nextG link to the mainland and the AIMS Data Centre. The base station also hosts its own sensors, currently these include underwater PAR and a still camera. Wireless Sensor Networks Facility (formerly known as Facility for The Automated Intelligent Monitoring of Marine Systems (FAIMMS)), part of the Great Barrier Reef Ocean Observing System project (GBROOS) (IMOS)