Oceanographic Services is one of the Bureau's eight major outputs and contributes towards Output 1.3 - Meteorological and Related Services. Oceanographic services include a range of data, information and products on current and forecast ocean conditions for the Australian region tailored to meet the sectoral needs of the marine and defence communities in particular, and to underpin the development and effective and sustainable operation of ocean observing systems which provide input to weather and climate monitoring and prediction.

OUTPUT PERFORMANCE 2003-04 

Output performance is measured against a number of quantity, quality and price targets. The results achieved for 2003-04 are provided below along with a commentary on significant variations.

During the year, Oceanographic Services were concentrated on two significant projects that will have major and long-term bearing on the nature of services being developed for the Bureau. The project to establish the new National Tidal Centre (NTC) within the Bureau and substantially transfer to it the operations of the former National Tidal Facility Australia involved a significant proportion of major output resources. The BLUElink project represents a major four-year commitment to jointly develop (with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and the CSIRO) the scientific and operational infrastructure necessary to produce high quality oceanographic services to serve a range of requirements, including those of the high priority defence, resource management and maritime safety sectors. It is expected that, as the operations of the NTC become more fully integrated into the Bureau during the next year, testing of user satisfaction levels for its outputs will be undertaken. At present there is a relatively small population of oceanographic service outputs. Testing of the level of satisfaction of a broader set of products and services will be more usefully undertaken as new outputs become available through the BLUElink project over the next few years.