On 1 July 2025, NIWA merged with GNS Science to become Earth Sciences New Zealand.

Atmospheric analysis

NIWA has been using advanced scientific instruments to measure atmospheric trace gases and isotopes for over 50 years.

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    Banded kōkopu

    Banded kōkopu juveniles are very good climbers and will try to escape from buckets by clinging to and wriggling up the sides.
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    Mining activities

    A range of different mining techniques have been developed to obtain these valuable resources
  • Fire in the ocean

    Annual reports

    Digital copies of all our annual reports published since 2011.
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    Using trigonometric functions to model climate

    Education Resource
    Your task is to create a model of the data to predict the times during the year that a location would be pleasant to visit
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    Al Brown's Hapuku Recipe

    Al Brown is an award-winning chef, co-owner of Wellington’s Logan Brown restaurant, television presenter on Hunger for the Wild, writer, and fisherman.
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    New map reveals New Zealand’s seafloor in stunning detail

    News article
  • QGIS

    QGIS is a free, open source, desktop mapping tool, widely used in New Zealand in government, research, commercial and NGO arenas.
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    Cloud Imagery

    On this page
    NZ Region Cloud Analysis Australasian Region Infrared Hemispheric Infrared NZ High-res Visible Contact
    All transmissions from GMS-5 are no longer received at NIWA’s satellite reception station in Wellington. We are working on an alternative data feed and will be able to bring back these images later this year. Once we start receiving data again, it will then be calibrated, re-mapped onto standard map projections, and archived.
  • Determining the age of fish

    Research Project
    NIWA expends considerable effort on determining the age of commercial fish species. But why age a fish? And how do we do it?
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    Smelt

    Smelt have a distinctly forked tail and a strong cucumber smell.
  • Water dams

    Damming water for urban use, hydro-electric power generation, irrigation, and other industrial and commercial uses.
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    Population modelling software

    Casal2 is an advanced software package developed by NIWA for modelling the population dynamics of marine species.