Environmental monitoring
Lizard Island is a node for the Great Barrier Reef Ocean Observing System (GBROOS). Solar and wind-powered sensors in the lagoon relay water and weather data continuously and these can be accessed in near-real time.
The system is managed by the Australian Institute of Marine Science and it was installed in August 2010. It comprises:
- A base station at LIRS which provides NextG communications and the on-reef network.
- A relay pole near Palfrey Island to propagate the wireless on-reef network.
- A relay pole near Seabird Islet with a weather station on top and a sensor string extending across the reef flat and down the front reef slope to 22 m depth. The weather station records wind strength and direction, temperature, humidity and other parameters. Underwater sensors at three depths (3-7m, 12 m and 22 m) all record temperature and the deepest also records salinity and pressure.
- Four buoys in the lagoon, each with a sensor string to the bottom and sensors recording temperature at the surface and at 5 m depth. Two of the buoys also record salinity and pressure at 12 m depth.
The system is designed for flexibility. Additional sensors can be clamped anywhere along the sensor strings and additional moveable buoys can be incorporated into the network. For more details, LIRS can provide contact details for the GBROOS team at AIMS.
