The South Australia moorings sub-facility is based at the South Australian Research and Development Institute in Adelaide and is responsible for a total of six moorings.  These moorings are deployed to continuously monitor the large seasonal coastal upwelling of water that occurs along the region’s continental shelf during summer.  This upwelling brings cold, nutrient rich waters onto the shelf which boosts primary productivity, creating one of the most productive coastal marine ecosystems in Australian waters.  The six moorings measure an array of physical and biological properties and are a combination of five regional moorings and a National Reference Station.

The regional moorings consist of three shelf moorings located in the path of the upwelled/downwelled exchange, an outer shelf mooring located to measure possible winter outflow of saline rich water from the Gulfs, and a slope mooring at a depth of 600m positioned to measure the Flinder’s Current and possible eddy velocities.  The National Reference Station is located at a convergence point of isobaths and monitors upwelling and outflow events as well as long-term variations in the strength of the coastal current.