Oceanographic Calibration Facility: high accuracy calibration of oceanographic instrumentation

The CSIRO Oceanographic Calibration Facility calibrates oceanographic instrumentation used by scientists across Australia for marine measurements.

The facility is based in Hobart, Tasmania and is National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) accredited to ISO:17025

Engineers at the facility calibrate oceanographic instrumentation. This includes Conductivity, Temperature, Depth (CTD) instruments, as well as dissolved oxygen and optical sensors from a variety of manufacturers. Calibrations are conducted for a range of clients including state research agencies, water authorities, the Australian Antarctic Division, Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), CSIRO teams, and a number of commercial organisations.

A full calibration generally takes one week to complete and instruments are returned with calibration reports. Our service has a level of accuracy consistent with world's best practice and temperature and pressure reports are NATA endorsed. For instruments that store calibration information internally, the new coefficient values are uploaded to the instrument prior to despatch.

Metrologists at the facility are able to calibrate the following sensors over the specified ranges:

• temperature: -2°C to 35°C (95 per cent uncertainty ± 0.0015°C)
• conductivity: 0 to 7 S/m (95 per cent uncertainty ± 0.0003 S/m)
• pressure: 0 to 11000 dbar (95 per cent uncertainty ± 0.012%)
• dissolved oxygen: 0 to 7 m/l (95 per cent uncertainty ± 0.03 ml/l)
• turbidity: 0 to 100 NTU (95 per cent uncertainty ± 0.25 NTU)
• fluorescence: 0 to 200 µg/L (95 per cent uncertainty ± 0.25 µg/L.

Conductivity, temperature and pressure instruments are the prime tool used by scientists for marine measurements. Precision measurement of ocean physics is critical to understanding how the coastal marine environment or deep ocean is changing over short, medium or longer-term time-scales.