We present an update on efforts to develop a high quality ocean climatology region, building on the success of the original CARS product which was last updated more than a decade ago. Two related products are in production:
1) a (relatively) complete database of historical in-situ profiles that supplements global databases (eg. the World Ocean Database) with “boutique” Australian data. We apply consistent quality control procedures developed by the International Quality-controlled Ocean Database (IQuOD) consortium, and provide the data in a standardised parquet file format;
2) a gridded climatology produced using the local-regression (LOESS) scheme, developed at CSIRO more than 20 years ago, that incorporates the effects of bathymetry, coastlines, as well as spatially and temporally inhomogeneous data distributions.

We will present an update on this work, identify the impact of additional ocean observations on gridded parameters, and flag various methodological improvements. and discuss ways to provide data, feedback and user input.

Biography:

Chris Chapman is a senior research scientist with the CSIRO’s Climate Atmosphere Ocean Interactions program. His research interests span oceanography and meteorology, with a focus on tropical and western boundary current regions. He leads the CARS rebuild project and enjoys making oceanographic data more useable and available to the wider community.