- About
- The Science
- CLIVAR Frontiers and Imperatives
- Frontier 1: Anthropogenic Climate Change
- Frontier 2: Decadal variability, predictability and prediction
- Frontier 3: Intra-seasonal and seasonal predictability and prediction
- Imperative 1: Improved atmosphere and ocean component models of Earth System Models
- Imperative 2: Data synthesis, analysis, reanalysis and uncertainty
- Imperative 3: Ocean observing system
- Imperative 4: Capacity building
- CLIVAR Endorsed Projects & Activities
- CLIVAR Objectives
- CLIVAR Successes
- CLIVAR Frontiers and Imperatives
- Panels and Working Groups
- Global
- PAGES/CLIVAR Intersection Working Group
- CCl/CLIVAR/JCOMM Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI)
- Global Synthesis and Observations Panel (GSOP)
- WGCM/CLIVAR Working Group on Ocean Model Development (WGOMD)
- Working Group on Seasonal to Interannual Prediction
- Working Group on Coupled Modelling (WGCM)
- Regional
- National Programmes
- Global
- Extremes Cross-Cut
- Calendar
- Resources
- Publications
About
The figure below displays a 3-D global overturning diagram (from Lumpkin and Speer, 2006), which illustrates some of the key roles the Southern Ocean plays in the climate system. The Southern Ocean buffers the rest of the world from the frigid conditions of the Antarctic continent, while meridional overturning across the Antarctic Circumpolar Current is the mechanism for the exchange of heat, carbon dioxide and other climate anomalies from the surface to the deep World Ocean
Sponsors
The Southern Ocean Panel is cosponsored by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, and the World Climate Research Programme's Climate and Cryosphere and Climate Variability and Predictability Programmes.
