A technician operating equipment in the Oceanographic Calibration Facility.

The Oceanographic Calibration Facility is used to calibrate ocean sensing instruments.

Oceanographic Calibration Facility: high precision calibration of conductivity, temperature and pressure sensors

CSIRO offers a service to calibrate oceanographic instrumentation (CTD) with a level of precision equal to the world’s best practice.

29 July 2008 | Updated 14 October 2011

The CSIRO Oceanographic Calibration Facility is a National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA)-accredited facility based in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

Engineers at the facility calibrate oceanographic instrumentation – generally conductivity temperature depth (CTD) instruments from a variety of manufacturers – for a range of clients including state research agencies, water authorities, CSIRO moorings and the Australian Antarctic Division.

The facility is able to calibrate temperature, conductivity and pressure sensors over the following ranges:

temperature: -2°C to +35°C (95 per cent Uncertainty +/- 0.001 5°C)
conductivity: 0 S/m to 6 S/m (95 per cent Uncertainty +/- 0.000 3 S/m)
pressure: 0 to 110 000 kPa (95 per cent Uncertainty +/- 0.01%).

A full calibration generally takes one week to complete and instruments are returned with calibration reports. Temperature and pressure reports are NATA endorsed. For instruments that store calibration information internally, the correct values are uploaded to the instrument prior to despatch.

Engineers at the facility calibrate oceanographic instrumentation for a range of clients.

Conductivity, temperature and pressure instruments are the prime tool used by scientists for marine measurements.

Precision measurement of ocean physics is critical to understanding how the coastal marine environment or deep ocean is changing over short, medium or longer-term time-scales.

Any inaccuracies in measurement will impact on the scientific outcomes and key publications in the journal Nature in 2008 have detailed the correction of biases in measurements evident in data series extending back to 1945, in one case since the introduction of expendable instruments in the early 1980s.

The calibration facility is managed by CSIRO electronics engineer, Mr Mark Underwood who, before joining CSIRO in 1998 spent 10 years in electronics with the Australian Antarctic Division.

For more information about this service or to discuss specifications, please contact Mark Underwood.