1. What is the source of the real-time data on the display?
The sea level and meteorological data displayed are those received from tidal gauge facilities
located in countries in the Pacific.
2. What are the sea level predictions and where do they come from?
These are tide predictions generated by the Australian National Tidal Centre (tides@bom.gov.au)
and are revised every year.
3. What is the 'residual'?
The residual is the difference between the actual observed sea level and the tide prediction.
4. What is UTC time?
UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) is an international 24-hour date and time standard based on a
highly-accurate atomic clock.
5. Why is '--' sometimes displayed for certain data on the display?
The '--' is displayed if no valid data is available from the tide gauge facility.
6. How current is the real-time data on the display?
It is normal for the data displayed to lag behind the current UTC time due to the time required
to obtain the data and process it for display. Delays may also be experienced when there are
problems with data communications services or other processes used to transfer the tide gauge
data to the real-time display.
7. What is meant by the Speed and Max values on the wind display?
The data used by the display contains the minimum, average and maximum values recorded for the
previous 1 minute. Samples are taken every one second and then the values to be reported are
calculated, time stamped and sent at the end of that minute. The displayed Speed is the average
of the preceding minutes valid one second samples. The displayed Max value is therefore the
highest valid one second sample of wind speed recorded in the previous minute.
8. Who/what verifies the real-time data?
The data on the real-time display undergoes basic automated quality checks, and '--' is displayed
if there is no valid data received from the tide gauge facility. Real-time data is intended to
provide a general indication of the sea level and weather conditions at the tide gauge facility,
and is not intended for use in scientific climate studies.
9. How do I obtain the data displayed in the charts of the real-time display?
Sea level and meteorological data for each of the Pacific country tide gauge facilities can be
obtained in monthly collections of data from http://www.bom.gov.au/pacific/projects/pslm/.
These monthly datasets receive additional quality checks that may include manual corrections by
data experts. Because of this, monthly datasets are better for scientific climate studies.
10. Why does the real-time display recommend to 'Activate cookies' on my web browser?
The real-time display uses cookies to reduce the amount of data that needs to be transferred to
your computer to function; this makes much more efficient use of your computer network's
bandwidth. For best results and the most up-to-date display of data, please ensure that cookies
are enabled in your web browser settings. The display will still work with cookies disabled, but
will need to transfer 70 KB of data every minute to operate.
11. What is the 'Text View'?
The Text View is an equivalent display of the real-time data in a tabular, non-graphical format.
The Text View is the default view for Internet Explorer 8 and older web browsers that do not
support some of the newer "Web 2.0" features such as HTML5 that is used by the real-time
display. Vision-impaired users may also choose to manually activate Text View using the icon at
the top of the display.
12. There are two versions of real-time display - the 'Internet' and the 'Local' version - how are they different?
In the 'Internet' version of the real-time data display, the IT infrastructure of the Australian
Bureau of Meteorology acts as an intermediate platform to collect the sea level and weather data
from the tide gauge network and to serve this information to a real-time display application
that runs within a web browser.
This allows a user to view information from any tide
gauge in the Pacific network, and may be useful for monitoring sea level or weather conditions
as they move through the Pacific region.
In the 'Local' version of the real-time data
display, IT infrastructure within a Pacific country is used to receive information directly from
that country's tide gauge and display this information locally within the country.
This
version of real-time display may be useful in Pacific countries that experience issues with
international Internet connectivity and where the 'Internet' version is unsuitable. The 'Local'
version also uses a web browser to display information, but because of its local connection to
the country's tide gauge, this real-time display can only show information from the
locally-connected tide gauge.
13. How can I report an issue or provide suggestions?
For issues or suggestions, please contact: PSLMSupport@bom.gov.au.
