The Australian Ocean Data Network (AODN) is an interoperable online network of marine and climate data resources. IMOS and the 6 Australian Commonwealth agencies form the core of the AODN. Increasingly, though, universities and State government offices are offering up data resources to the AODN, and delivery of data to the AODN is being written in to significant research programs (e.g. National Environmental Science Program Marine Biodiversity Hub).
The marine data collections are made freely available to the public. Data covers a wide range of parameters in different ocean environments collected from ocean-going ships, autonomous vehicles, moorings and other platforms. The scope of observations, geographically spanning ocean to coast, and across disciplines (physical, biogeochemical, biological), provides a challenge to deliver an intuitive easy-to-use robust information infrastructure enabling users to efficiently obtain the data they need.