Guides / how-to-connect-aodn-imos-api-australia

AU Research

How to connect the AODN / IMOS ocean data catalogue

IMOS / AODN

The Australian Ocean Data Network (AODN) catalogue holds the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) collections and other marine data. It runs on GeoNetwork, which describes datasets and links to where the data actually lives. Public reads need no key.

For quick JSON, the q search service takes _content_type=json, a from/to page window and free-text any= (any=temperature matched 1,588 records on 16 Oct 2026). For standards-based harvesting, the same catalogue exposes OGC CSW 2.0.2 at /geonetwork/srv/eng/csw.

Records point to the files, often netCDF on the AODN THREDDS server. For Tasmanian marine metadata, see also IMAS / UTAS GeoNetwork.

Steps

  1. Find the base URL. Use https://catalogue-imos.aodn.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/q?_content_type=json&fast=index&from=1&to=1 — docs at https://catalogue-imos.aodn.org.au/geonetwork.
  2. Auth. Catalogued as Open read — none for public.
  3. Try an example request. 
    curl -s 'https://catalogue-imos.aodn.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/q?_content_type=json&fast=index&from=1&to=1'
  4. Licence. Unknown — not stated by the publisher. Read the publisher terms before production use.
  5. Agent notes. Live count 1,840. THREDDS https://thredds.aodn.org.au/thredds/catalog.html 200.
Connect recipe
base
https://catalogue-imos.aodn.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/q?_content_type=json&fast=index&from=1&to=1
docs
https://catalogue-imos.aodn.org.au/geonetwork
protocol
GeoNetwork
auth
Open read — none for public
licence
Licence unclear
try
curl -s 'https://catalogue-imos.aodn.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/q?_content_type=json&fast=index&from=1&to=1'
checked
2026-10-15 · 200 OK · 1334 ms

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