The facility will comprise a coordinated network of HF radars delivering quality assured data into a national archive. Based on experience in Europe and the USA, deployment of these radars is expected to make a profound change to coastal ocean research in Australia. HF radar provides unprecedented time-resolved surface current maps over the monitoring sites for physical and biological ocean research. Deployment of the radars will be in support of regional nodes where there is a range of identified questions concerned with boundary currents and associated eddies and their interactions with shelf water and topography. In turn these are linked to productivity, connectivity of biological populations and phenomena such as coral
bleaching and diseases. It will provide a basis for applied research in wave prediction and will offer test sites for hydrodynamic modelling.

The equipment will comprise Long Range WERA and Medium Range WERA Systems and Long range CODAR and Medium-Range CODAR Systems and associated spares and transport infrastructure. An existing system being installed by James Cook University in the Capricorn/Bunker region around Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef will be integrated into the network. A proposed HF radar acquisition by a consortium led by South Australian Research and Development Institute in South Australia will also be integrated into the network.

More details of the ACORN project can be found in the 2nd Issue of Marine Matters Newsletter