We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our users for their support and patronage for 2008.

Amazing Details Recorded in the EAC off NSW/Qld Coast.

Throughout the year the water temperatures off the east coast of Australia vary a great deal and these changes are reflected in the images that can be seen on www.seasurface.com. The driving force behind these changes is the Eastern Australian Current (EAC). The image to the immediate right is an example and was recorded on 15 December 2008.

The EAC is the western arm of a huge anticlockwise current system centred out in the Pacific and which brings tropical waters down the eastern coast of Australia. These currents, moving as fast as 5 knots, deliver vast quantities of warm, nutrient poor water, to the coast in a seasonal cycle that peaks in summer each year and we are starting to see them form this year. Other smaller eddies spin off the EAC as it moves southward. These take form of two types; the larger warmer eddies spin anticloskwise and the smaller colder core eddies that spin clockwise. These have been illustrated with red arrows in the far right diagram. As summer progresses the EAC will progress further south before it begins forming these eddies.

Also visible in this image is a colder inshore current coming north along the coast. This current would be rich in nutrients and where it meets the warmer EAC the phytoplankton would begin to bloom. The elbow of where this colder water meets the EAC and the EAC turns east would have been a good hunting ground.

New GPS Marks Service Well Received

From the comments we have been receiving from existing subscribers the new GPS Marks service we introduced earlier this month has been well received.

Just as a reminder, to display the GPS locations of known marks within your selected image you need to click on the green Show/Hide GPS Marks button to the left of the image. The marks will then be shown on your image. Public marks will appears as small Yellow squares and private marks as small Green squares.

To read the details for any mark in your image hold down the Ctrl button on the keyboard and then click on the mark with the left mouse button. A small box with details on the mark will open up in the top right corner of your image. The colour of the particular mark that you are querying will change to Red. To move the details box to another location in your image hold the Ctrl button on the keyboard down and with the left mouse button click on the box, and with the mouse button held down drag the box to another location. To see the details of another mark just repeat the same steps as above.

There is a comprehensive section to our user manual which can be read by clicking here. The manual can also be accessed by clicking on the How To use SST button at the top of each page.

As stated in our last newsletter there are many innovative uses for this new service and I am sure you will put it to good use.

Newsletter Archive

All previous copies of the Seasurface.com Newsletter can now be viewed by either clicking here or by going to the web site front page at www.seasurface.com and clicking the News button.

Advertisers

You will have noticed that we now have advertisers on our web site. These are all fine businesses that provide products and services to the fishing community. They appear below and we encourage you to support them when you can. By clicking on each add you will taken to either to their web site or the special offer that is available to our subscribers.






If you wish to advertise on our web site please email us your details at info@earthinsite.com and we will send you our rates which start as low as $22 per month.

User Hint

Why are there large green areas in the middle of the satellite data?
There are two explanations for this occurring:
1. Sun Glint
Under certain conditions, water can act as a spectacular reflector, much like a mirror and as a result sun glint occurs when the sunlight is reflected from the ocean's surface back to the satellite. The area can be many kilometres long and wide. Because sun glint can cause false temperature readings, it is removed from images by the software and thus you get large areas were no data appears. These areas can often have an elliptical shape or a rectangular shape (See Fig to the right) and vary as the season progress.

2. Data Errors
Occasionally you get interference in the reception of the satellite data and also technical problems with the transmission of data from the satellite. This cause loss of data and usually occurs as parallel areas of green (no data) at right angles to the satellite path (see Fig to the right).