North West Shelf Joint Environmental Management Study:InVitro Inputs - Rainfall time series

The daily rainfall time series were constructed from records on the rainfall at the Karratha and Port Hedland airports supplied by the National Climate Centre in the Head Office of the Bureau of Meteorology (P. Reid pers. comm.). These data sets ran from 14/12/1971 for Karratha and from 17/7/1942 for Port Hedland. These data sets were merged using: - an average where a valid entry existed for both time series - the data as supplied if only one valid entry was present - the long term average (through multiple years) if no valid entry for that day in that year in either time series. The resulting combined rainfall series was then converted into a time series of 90 day running sums. Sums rather than averages were used as overall input to the system. These systems are of particular importance for recruitment in the prawn fisheries of the North West Shelf region.