From Australian Oceans Data Network
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Argos PTT Tracking Database

Created 23/06/2025

Updated 23/06/2025

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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.

Files and APIs

Tags

Additional Info

Field Value
Title Argos PTT Tracking Database
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/aa6f76f2-1bf8-4ad7-8d5f-f9dbd5989793
Contact Point
Australian Ocean Data Network
metadata@aad.gov.au
Reference Period 01/03/1982
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    [
      [
        -60.0,
        -70.0
      ],
      [
        179.0,
        -70.0
      ],
      [
        179.0,
        -40.0
      ],
      [
        -60.0,
        -40.0
      ],
      [
        -60.0,
        -70.0
      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Australian Oceans Data Network

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Australian Oceans Data Network "Argos PTT Tracking Database". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://catalogue.aodn.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/argos-ptt-tracking-database