IMOS - Ships of Opportunity Facility

The Ships of Opportunity Facility (formerly known as Enhancement of Measurements on Ships of Opportunity (SOOP)) encompasses both the open ocean and coastal waters, in support of short time-scales associated with ocean prediction and the longer term scales of climate research.  The aim of the Facility is to implement an integrated observing system in Australian regional seas that link physical, chemical and biological oceanography and ecology.  Our ships of opportunity include both volunteer commercial vessels on regular routes and research vessels covering more varied routes.  

The target regions are the boundary current systems off Eastern and Western Australia, the Southern Ocean, the shelf seas across northern Australia, and the Great Barrier Reef.  This is achieved by the following specific goals:
1.  Implement vessels on suitable routes with an integrated system of measurements including physical and biogeochemical parameters 
a.  Monitor the major boundary currents systems around Australia.
b.  Monitor both local processes and the interactions of the boundary currents on the continental shelf 
2.  Provide in situ input and/or validation to model and data analyses covering the waters around Australia.

The use of vessels that undertake continuous transects between ports or regions allow seasonal and annual datasets to be established. The Ships of Opportunity Facility builds upon similar pre-existing programs, expanding to collect a wider variety of data and increasing the number of vessels fitted with the various sampling equipment. The Ships of Opportunity Facility consists of nine different sub-facilities (+ 1 inactive sub-facility) :

Expendable Bathythermographs - Expendable Bathythermographs (XBTs) are single-use instruments that are used to measure temperature profiles of the ocean. Using ships that undertake the same path on a regular basis allows the collection of high-density transects, capturing high-resolution and temporal information that allows for smaller-scale oceanic features, including fronts and eddies to be resolved.

Biogeochemical Sensors - collect high-quality underway CO2 observations from ships specially fitted with CO2 underway systems. Biogeochemical Sensors increase the spatial coverage of CO2 observations in both Australian waters and the Southern Ocean, complementing data collected by moorings (Acidification Moorings and Southern Ocean Time Series Observatory). 

Australian Plankton Survey - measures plankton communities around Australia using Continuous Plankton Recorders (CPRs). 

Southern Ocean Plankton - measures plankton communities using Continuous Plankton Recorders (CPRs), using ships that regularly traverse the Southern Ocean, it will provide species-specific information on both phytoplankton and zooplankton from approximately 43⁰S to the Antarctic sea-ice edge.

Sensors on Tropical Research Vessels (inactive) - AIMS research vessels the RV Solander and the RV Cape Ferguson. The instruments obtain underway observations of near-surface water properties, including temperature, salinity, chlorophyll, fluorescence and turbidity. 

Sea Surface Temperature Sensors for Australian Vessels - Implemented on Australian Volunteer Observing Fleet (AVOF) vessels and several passenger ferries.  Hull-mounted sensors supply high-quality bulk SST data fed into existing data management systems and broadcast via satellite back to Australia. Radiometers on ferries supply high-quality skin SST data in near real-time. 

Research Vessels Real-time Air-Sea Fluxes - Research vessels have been equipped with "climate quality" met. systems, providing high quality air-sea flux measurements and delivered in near real-time. 

Bioacoustics - Uses vessels equipped with echosounders, at single and multiple frequencies to estimate the abundance and distribution of these mid-tropic level organisms.

Sensors on Temperate Merchant Vessels - Use autonomous water sampling equipment installed on the Spirit of Tasmania 1 to continuous monitor Port Phillip Bay and the Bass Strait. The regularity and consistency in voyage track between the two ports provides high-quality repeat sampling of marine conditions.

Fishing Vessels as Ships of Opportunity - Works with the fishing industry to collect near real-time subsurface sea temperature measurements by installing equipment on fishing gear deployed by a network of commercial fishing vessels.

Tags: Agency | AAD | Australian Antarctic Division, Agency | AIMS | Australian Institute of Marine Science, Agency | BOM | Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Agency | CSIRO | Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Agency | EPA-Vic | Environment Protection Authority of Victoria, Atmosphere | Atmospheric Water Vapor | Humidity, Bathythermographs | Expendable Bathythermographs (XBT), Biosphere | Microbiota | Plankton, CTD (Conductivity-Temperature-Depth Profilers), Continuous Plankton Recorder, Fluorometers, Global / Oceans | Indian Ocean, Global / Oceans | Pacific Ocean, Global / Oceans | Southern Ocean, IMOS Facility | Ships Of Opportunity, IMOS Node | Bluewater and Climate, Marine Features (Australia) | Bass Strait, TAS/VIC, Marine Features (Australia) | East Australian Current, Marine Features (Australia) | Great Barrier Reef, QLD, Meteorological Instruments, Oceans | Bathymetry | Water Depth, Oceans | Ocean Chemistry | Carbon Dioxide, Oceans | Ocean Chemistry | Chlorophyll, Oceans | Ocean Optics | Fluorescence, Oceans | Ocean Optics | Turbidity, Oceans | Ocean Temperature | Sea Surface Temperature, Oceans | Ocean Temperature | Water Temperature, Oceans | Salinity/density | Conductivity, Oceans | Salinity/density | Salinity, Project | GBROOS | Great Barrier Reef Ocean Observing System, Regional Seas | Coral Sea, Regional Seas | Tasman Sea, Thermosalinographs
Organization: Australian Ocean Data Network