Eastern Tasmania marine heatwave atlas

In recent decades, sea surface temperatures of eastern Tasmania have been increasing dramatically with climate change. Coincident with this warming trend are short term variations in temperature which occasionally lead to periods of extreme ocean tempera- tures of marine heatwaves. The marine biodiversity, fisheries and aquaculture industries on the nearshore and continental shelf waters of Tasmania's east coast have come under stress due to both the overall warming trend and specific marine heatwave events. In this atlas, we use a quantitative defnition of marine heatwaves to detect all events which have occurred in 12 regions across the continental shelf of eastern Tasmania over 1993-2015. For each event in each region this atlas includes information on (i) event properties in- cluding intensity, duration and depth, (ii) maps of regional ocean circulation and ocean temperature during the event, and (iii) maps of regional atmospheric conditions during the event (air temperature and surface wind). Also provided are summary statistics in- cluding the typical conditions which give rise to marine heatwaves in each region and annual time series demonstrating interannual variability and long term trends in marine heatwave properties.