Downloading the Data – OLD – Australia's Environment

Downloading the Data

The material provided through this website is experimental and derived through active research. The Australian National University does not have a legislated role in providing authoritative information. All information is made available on the understanding that it does not constitute professional advice. Before relying on the material in any important matter, users should carefully evaluate its accuracy, currency, completeness and relevance for their purposes, and should obtain any appropriate professional advice relevant to their particular circumstances. Links to other websites do not constitute an endorsement of material at those sites, or any associated organisation, product or service.

Regional summary data can be downloaded directly from the chart interface on each topic page
All regional data is also available as a single bulk CSV download
Gridded data is available via NCI's THREDDS service in NetCDF4 format
All data is provided under a Creative Commons CC BY 3.0 AU licence

Regional summary data

You can download regional summary data directly via the Get the data link below the data chart on each page of the website.

If you wish to download all available data at once, you can find all data in CSV format here.

Gridded data

All gridded data can be accessed and downloaded via NCI's THREDDS service in NetCDF4 format. You can access our data catalogue directly, or use the download links below.

Various software packages can read NetCDF format including QGIS, ArcGIS, Matlab, Python, and ENVI/IDL. Note that files containing all years are usually larger than 500 MB.

Weather

Precipitation (annual sums): direct download or THREDDS
Maximum temperature (annual maximum): direct download or THREDDS
Hot days (annual number): direct download or THREDDS
Minimum temperature (annual minimum): direct download or THREDDS
Frost days (annual number): direct download or THREDDS
Snow cover (annual average): direct download or THREDDS

Fire

Burnt area (date): direct download or THREDDS
Fire intensity (annual maxima): direct download or THREDDS
Fire occurrence (annual sums): direct download or THREDDS
Fuel moisture content (annual minima): direct download or THREDDS
Fire carbon emissions (annual sums): direct download or THREDDS

Water

Runoff (annual sums): direct download or THREDDS
Inundation (annual maxima): direct download or THREDDS

Soils

Soil moisture (annual averages): direct download or THREDDS
Exposed soil (annual averages): direct download or THREDDS

Vegetation

Tree cover (annual values): direct download or THREDDS
Vegetation leaf area (annual averages): direct download or THREDDS
Vegetation carbon uptake (annual sums): direct download or THREDDS

Data origin

Most data are produced by the OzWALD (Australian Water and Landscape Dynamics) model-data fusion system, which integrates satellite and ground observations through a computer model of Australia's environment. For further details see:

Van Dijk, A.I.J.M. and Rahman, J. (2019). Synthesising multiple observations into annual environmental condition reports: the OzWALD system and Australia's Environment Explorer. In Elsawah, S. (ed.) MODSIM2019, 23rd International Congress on Modelling and Simulation. December 2019, pp. 884–890. ISBN: 978-0-9758400-9-2. https://doi.org/10.36334/modsim.2019.J5.vandijk

The spatial data produced by ANU are derived from observations and products published by Geoscience Australia (Digital Earth Australia), the Bureau of Meteorology, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ERA5, GFAS), NASA (GPM, MODIS), CSIRO, ANU, and ABARES. If you have questions about the methods or data, please contact us.