Argos PTT Tracking Database

A repository of all ARGOS satellite messages from 1982 to present. Trackers have been used on AWS stations, buoys and numerous species of whales, seals and seabirds.


ARGOS is a means of sending data back from PTT devices - Position Tracking Terminals. However, the subject does not necessarily have to be moving - as in the case of the Automatic Weather Stations (AWS), which use ARGOS for relaying meteorological data back to Australia.


Animal species that have been or are currently monitored by the Australian Antarctic Program using the ARGOS system include:


Grey-headed Albatross

Black-browed Albatross

Light mantled sooty albatross

Australian Fur Seal

Antarctic Fur Seal

Weddell Seal

Ross seal

Crabeater seal

Southern Elephant Seal

Emperor Penguin

King Penguin

Macaroni Penguin

Adelie Penguin

Pygmy Blue Whale


Locations in which the ARGOS system is/was being used by the Australian Antarctic Program are:


Admiralty Bay

Albatross Island

Almagro

Auster Rookery

Bechervaise Island

Cape Gantheaume

Caroline Cove

Casey

Davis

Diego Ramirez

Dumont d'Urville, Base

Edmonson Point

Ildefonso

Inexpressible Island

Macquarie Island

Magnetic Island

Pedra Branca

Scullin Monolith

Shirley Island

Spit Bay

Taylor Rookery

Ufs Island


Each day, data is retrieved via telnet client from the ARGOS site in France. A batch process parses the data files and inserts into the Data Centre database by 0800 local time. End-users can subscribe to an email describing the recent data uploads.


Web-based tools are provided to filter the data by bounding box, time span and type of message quality. Finally a optional velocity filter can be applied to remove spurious positions that should not be reachable by that particular species. For example, seal data can be filtered for positions that would require speeds in excess of 10 km/hr. The same tool ascribes species, gender, age class and breeding status to each set of data.


A separate control allows the filtered data to be published to the general public and/or to OBIS and GBIF via web services.


Output products include maps, excel spreadsheets and KML files for mapping data on Google Earth.

Simple

Identification info

Alternate title
Argos PTT Tracking Database
Date (Publication)
2003-08-08
Edition
1

Originator

Watts, D.J. and Morrissy, J.

Publisher

Australian Antarctic Data Centre

Principal investigator

WATTS, DAVE JOHN
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
Castray Esplanade
Hobart
Tasmania
7000
Australia

Principal investigator

MORRISSY, JOHN
Australian Antarctic Division
203 Channel Highway
Kingston
Tasmania
7050
Australia

Collaborator

WATTS, DAVE JOHN
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
Castray Esplanade
Hobart
Tasmania
7000
Australia
Name
CAASM Metadata
Website
https://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/records/DB_Argos_PTT_Tracking

Status
On going

Custodian

AU/AADC > Australian Antarctic Data Centre, Australia - AADC, DATA OFFICER (DATA CENTER CONTACT)
Australian Antarctic Division
203 Channel Highway
Kingston
Tasmania
7050
Australia
Topic category
  • Biota
  • Oceans

Extent

N
S
E
W


Extent

Description
Temporal Coverage

Temporal extent

TimePeriod
1982-03-01
NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
  • EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION > ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES > BIRDS > ALBATROSSES/PETRELS AND ALLIES
  • EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION > ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES > MAMMALS > CETACEANS > BALEEN WHALES
  • EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION > ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES > MAMMALS > CARNIVORES > SEALS/SEA LIONS/WALRUSES
  • EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION > ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES > BIRDS > PENGUINS
  • EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CIRCULATION > WIND-DRIVEN CIRCULATION
  • EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CIRCULATION > OCEAN CURRENTS
  • EARTH SCIENCE > CRYOSPHERE > SEA ICE > PACK ICE
  • EARTH SCIENCE > CRYOSPHERE > SEA ICE > ICEBERGS
  • EARTH SCIENCE > CRYOSPHERE > SEA ICE > ICE EXTENT
  • EARTH SCIENCE > CRYOSPHERE > SEA ICE > ICE EDGES
Keywords
  • ANTARCTIC MARINE LIVING RESOURCES
  • ANTARCTICA
  • BIOLOGY
  • GLACIOLOGY
  • SOUTHERN OCEAN
  • OCEANOGRAPHY
  • SATELLITE
NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
  • ARGOS > ARGOS Data Collection and Position Location System
NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
  • OBIS > OCEAN BIOGEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
  • IPY > INTERNATIONAL POLAR YEAR
  • SCAR-MARBIN > SCAR Marine Biodiversity Information Network
  • CAML > CENSUS OF ANTARCTIC MARINE LIFE
  • COML > CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE
  • EBA > Evolution and Biodiversity in the Antarctic
NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
  • AMD/AU
  • CEOS
  • AMD
  • OBIS/AADC
  • ANTABIF
NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
  • OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN
  • OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN > MACQUARIE ISLAND
  • CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA
  • GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR
  • OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN > HEARD AND MCDONALD ISLANDS

Resource constraints

Use limitation
This metadata record is publicly available.

Resource constraints

Access constraints
licence
Other constraints
Species distribution data is published to SCAR-MarBIN, OBIS and GBIF portals. Historical data from past field campaigns are publicly available. More recent data are made publicly available as the data are analyzed and published.

Resource constraints

File type
Portable Network Graphic
Linkage
Creative Commons by Attribution logo

Title
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Website
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

Legal code for Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 International license

Use constraints
licence
Other constraints
This data set conforms to the CCBY Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Please follow instructions listed in the citation reference provided at http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/metadata/citation.cfm?entry_id=DB_Argos_PTT_Tracking when using these data.
Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Distribution Information

Distributor

Distributor

AU/AADC > Australian Antarctic Data Centre, Australia - AADC, DATA OFFICER (DATA CENTER CONTACT)
Australian Antarctic Division
203 Channel Highway
Kingston
Tasmania
7050
Australia

Distributor

Fees
free
Planned available datetime
2003-08-08T00:00:00
OnLine resource
GET DATA

ARGOS Satellite Tracking database

OnLine resource
PROJECT HOME PAGE

ARGOS Home Page

OnLine resource
VIEW RELATED INFORMATION

Citation reference for this metadata record and dataset

Resource lineage

Statement
According to ARGOS, the position error can vary from 350 metres (class 3) to about 5km or less for a class 1 hit. Most end-users use speed filter and have a degree of confidence on the majority of the filtered data. Most tracked species are marine and one can use a land-sea mask to remove positions that may appear to be on land for the true marine species. Some of the positions will be for taxa that are breeding or resting in their land colonies but these will be very close to the coast.
Hierarchy level
Dataset
Maintenance and update frequency
As needed
Maintenance note
2008-03-03 - Dave Watts - added projects, updated access details, extended spatial coverage. 2018-01-04 - record updated by Dave Connell - basic updates.

Metadata

Metadata identifier
string/DB_Argos_PTT_Tracking

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Author

CONNELL, DAVE J.
Australian Antarctic Division
203 Channel Highway
Kingston
Tasmania
7050
Australia

Sponsor

Australian Antarctic Division

Owner

AADC

Type of resource

Resource scope
Dataset

Alternative metadata reference

Title
gov.nasa.gsfc.gcmd
Citation identifier
02fd5322-89bc-40de-93fb-a0c5038cdcf5

Alternative metadata reference

Title
gov.nasa.gsfc.gcmd
Date (Last Revision)
2021-11-17T14:24:36

Identifier

Description
metadata.extraction_date

Alternative metadata reference

Title
gov.nasa.gsfc.gcmd
Citation identifier
8.6

Metadata linkage
http://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/records/DB_Argos_PTT_Tracking

Point of truth for the metadata record

Date info (Creation)
2003-08-08T00:00:00
Date info (Last Update)
2021-11-17

Metadata standard

Title
ISO 19115-3
Edition
2014
Other citation details
Version 1
Title
DIF to ISO 19115-1 Profile
 
 

Overviews

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords


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Not available