Salinity at 2.35m, 5.35m and 18m depth (GBR1)
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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.
This page shows salinity at different depths on the Great Barrier Reef based on the 1km eReefs Hydrodynamic model.
Salinity at different depths
The salinity of normal ocean water is approximately 35 PSU. As freshwater is mixed with the ocean water the salinity drops, with pure water having a PSU of zero. This product highlights that, absent forced mixing from current upwelling (such as by cyclones), lower salinity water floats to the surface (represented on this page by the 2.35m depth).
Interesting events
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.