Remotely sensed images of sediment from a weather event washing into the Great Barrier reef

Imagery shows outer Great Barrier Reef at risk from river plumes

A stunning series of satellite imagery of Australia's Great Barrier Reef released by the CSIRO shows for the first time visual confirmation of the theory that sediment plumes travel to the outer reef, and beyond.

The remotely sensed images, taken from February 9 to 13 this year, challenge conventional thought that sediment travelling from our river systems into the GBR is captured by the longshore current and travels no more than 10 to 15km offshore, affecting only the inner Great Barrier Reef Lagoon and the inner reef corals.

Images captured by CSIRO show large plumes of terrestrial material following unconventional patterns and travelling quite fast as far as 65 to 130km, to the outer reef and, in some instances, travelling along the outer reef and re-entering the reef.

The plumes are the result of heavy rainfalls in northern Queensland around late January to early February 2007, with the resulting flood waters carrying a larger sediment load than during regular rainfall and river flow. As such floods have not occurred for a while the accumulated material in the creeks and rivers coupled with increased sediment runoff from the land is causing a significant transport of terrestrial material to all areas of the affected reefs and reef waters.

Managers of the GBR have long been examining the effects of run-off of sediments, including pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, on the reef corals.

The images challenge the traditional school of hydrological modelling, which says sediment plume movement in the mid to northern GBR usually go north and never directly flow to the outer reef is spared the direct effects of such river floods.

"A re-think is needed now that we know where flood plumes go," says CSIRO Wealth from Oceans Flagship scientist Arnold Dekker," and what this means as organic micropollutants may be travelling to parts of the reef scientists hadn't thought to look before."

The images were taken from NASA's MODIS satellite by GeoScience Australia's Alice Springs site for a new product being developed by the Wealth from Oceans Flagship to track coastal and ocean events in real-time, building on the technology behind the successful SENTINEL bushfire tracking system.
While extreme coastal events have been captured by remote sensing before, this is the first time they can be seen and analysed straight after the event as there are now more satellites imaging the Earth and CSIRO has invested in fast information delivery systems.

NASA reports on GBR study

These recent images answer many of the questions posed in the article 'Cattle, Crops and Coral: Flood Plumes and the Great Barrier Reef' from the 2006 NASA EOS Annual Report. This study into flood plumes affecting the waters of the Great Barrier Reef is the first story featured in NASA's 2006 Annual Report for their Earth System Science group.

The prominence of this article reflects the importance NASA is placing on the remote sensing work undertaken on behalf of our Wealth From Oceans Flagship by the team of Vittorio Brando, Thomas Schroeder, Arnold Dekker, Andy Steven, and Magnus Wettle from CSIRO Land and Water, and CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research's Lesley Clementson.

The article summarises the team's ongoing work, delivering daily images of water quality, sourced from NASA's MODIS satellite, to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, which is used to asses the eutrophication of the reef waters.

"This is a great honour," says project leader Arnold Dekker, "and it shows that the work we do has global impact and global relevance."

Download images of sediment plumes flowing towards the Great Barrier Reef.
 

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Meet Mr John Gunn

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The Wealth from Oceans Flagship is a CSIRO initiative and part of the National Research Flagships program that aims to deliver scientific solutions to advance Australia's most important national objectives. One of the largest scientific initiatives ever mounted in Australia, it aligns closely with the Federal Government's National Research Priorities. The initiative brings together our national research resources to deliver breakthroughs in fields ranging from healthcare to light metals and the environment.

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