AIMS Sea Water Temperature Observing System (AIMS Temperature Logger Program)
The data provided here are from a number of sea water temperature monitoring programs conducted in tropical and subtropical coral reefs environments around Australia. Data are available from approximately 80 GBR sites, 16 Coral Sea sites, 7 sites in North West Western Australia (WA), 8 Queensland regional ports, 13 sites in the Solitary Islands, 4 sites in PNG and 10 sites in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. Data are obtained from in-situ data loggers deployed on the reef. Temperature instruments sample water temperatures every 5-10 minutes (typically) and are exchanged and downloaded approximately every 12 months. Temperature loggers on the reef-flat are generally placed just below Lowest Astronomical Tide level. Reef-slope (or where specified as Upper reef-slope) generally refers to depths 5 - 9 m while Deep reef-slope refers to depths of ~20 m.
Reefs are under threat from climate change. Elevated sea temperature is a major stress to reefs, capable of causing widespread coral bleaching and mortality. Small excursions of temperature outside normal summer levels can cause stress and bleaching in corals, especially sensitive species. Temperature data from this program are used to correlate with bleaching events and derive local bleaching thresholds. Data are also used in a wide variety of other marine research programs, including fisheries, balast water, turtles, sea birds, seagrass, coral disease, oceanography, process studies, validation of proxy climate records etc.
Download via the AODN Portal is currently unavailable, access through programming links below or the AIMS Time Series Explorer - https://apps.aims.gov.au/ts-explorer/
Data and resources
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Article and Climatology Dashboard (see map on) Drivers of Bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef - Compilation of temperature data from 2015, 2016 2017HTML Open
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AIMS Temperature Logger Data WFS LayerHTML Open
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Thesis: Berkelmans RWC (2001) Bleaching, upper thermal limits and temperature adaptation in reef coral. Thesis. James Cook University Marine Biology. 179 p.PDF Open
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Berkelmans RWC, Weeks SJ and Steinberg CR (2010) Upwelling linked to warm summers and bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef. Limnology and Oceanography 55:…HTML Open
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Ray Berkelmans. (2002). Time-integrated thermal bleaching thresholds of reefs and their variation on the Great Barrier Reef. Marine Ecology Progress Series,…HTML Open
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Current QC method - applies to all current dataPDF Open
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Data access through the Time Series ExplorerHTML Open
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Time-integrated thermal bleaching thresholds of reefs and their variation on the Great Barrier Reef: Berkelmans RWC (2002) Time-integrated thermal bleaching…HTML Open
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Temperature Loggers Climatology for the GBR region (NESP TWQ 4.2, AIMS)HTML Open
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Data access via Programming APIHTML Open
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Data access using RHTML Open
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Subset and download this data via the Australian Ocean Data NetworkHTML Open
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Temperature Logger Deployments Data Download Zip folder size: < 200 KBZIP Open
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Temperature Logger Data Download zip folder size: 1 GBZIP Open
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Snapshot - March 2019 - Old Quality Control processZIP Open
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Old QC method - applies to data downloaded before March 2019PDF Open
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AIMS Temperature Logger WMS LayerHTML Open
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audio/basic Open
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audio/basic Open
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audio/basic Open
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audio/basic Open
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License GraphicPNG Open
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HTML Open
Additional information
| Date (revision) | 2026-10-25 |
|---|---|
| Status | onGoing |
| Update frequency | irregular |
| Metadata language | en |
| License | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 |
| Source metadata | ISO 19115 XML |
| Last updated | 2026-11-05 |
| Created | 2026-11-05 |
| API | package_show |