The Bureau of Meteorology Data Catalogue

Will search for all catalogue metadata records which contain ALL of the terms entered in this box. Terms can be anywhere in the matched catalogue record.

Will search for all records containing AT LEAST ONE of the terms in this box. For example entering rain precipitation will match any record containing, either rain OR precipitation or both, anywhere in the record. Terms can be anywhere in the matched catalogue record.

Will match all records containing, in the record's Title field, ALL of the terms entered in the Title search box.

As with the Title box, but the entered terms have to be in the record's Abstract field.

Will match all records containing all the entered terms, anywhere in that record's Keyword fields.

Note: Unlike all the other boxes, the Keyword search is case sensitive. For example entering rainfall will find records containing rainfall OR Rainfall OR RAINFALL, in a Keyword field. However, if you know that the term is mixed case in a more complicated way, such as DataParam, you should enter the term using its exact case.

Keyword searches can use 'truncation' (such as rain*), but cannot use 'phrase searching'.

Each catalogue metadata record for a dataset contains the time span of that dataset.

For a time span (Start and End dates) entered in the search form, the search will match all records that have a time span that intersects (overlaps, encloses or is enclosed by) the entered date range.

Example: setting "Start" to 2004-01-01 and "End" to 2006-03-01, will return search results matching any record that has some data within that entered time span.

That is, all the following example datasets timespans would be matched: (1870-01-01 to 2004-02-07), and (2005-02-01 to 2006-01-01), and (1912-01-01 to now) and (2006-01-01 to 2009-01-01). But the following example dataset time ranges would not be matched: (1870-01-01 to 2003-12-31), and (2006-04-01 to 2009-01-01)

For a start date (only) entered in the search form, the search will match all records with some data on or after the entered date.

Each catalogue metadata record for a dataset contains a Bounding Box (North [latitude], South [latitude], West [longitude] and East [longitude] values). A catalogue record's Bounding Box indicates the spatial area covered by the dataset. Values are in decimal degrees of -180 to 180 (West/East) and 90 to -90 (North/South).

Entering North, South, West and East (N,S,W,E) values into the search form will restrict the search results to any records that have a BoundingBox that intersects (eg overlaps, encloses, is within, or is the same as) the area that has been entered in the search form.

A list of (N,S,W,E) values for common/popular areas is here, a world map showing broad latitude/longitude is here, and for finer lat/longs - this zoomable map of the Australian region shows the latitude and longitude of the mouse/pointer, as it moves (in the bottom right hand side).

Example: region search (for Antarctica): This search will match any record in the catalogue whose data is related (at least in part) to the Antarctic area [NSWE of -60, -90, 110, 180]. After visiting this url, and clicking the Refine Search button, the search form will be populated with these NSWE values.

This restricts the search to catalogue records for "open" data: that is directly accessible at no charge. The catalogue contains records for data that is available under various conditions, including: subscriptions, with a charge, and freely /directly accessible. See Licencing.