The Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS)

The Southern Ocean is an integral and key component of the global climate system. The large extent of sea ice in the region has a profound influence on the radiation budget. It is also home to the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, which connects all the major ocean basins and permits a global-scale overturning (thermohaline) circulation to exist. The Southern Ocean supports unique food webs with strong feedbacks and linkages to biogeochemical cycles that affect carbon cycling and atmospheric CO₂ exchanges.  The region is vast, remote and logistically difficult to access and thus is one of the least sampled regions on Earth. Design and implementation of an observing system that encompasses physical, biogeochemical and ecological processes is therefore a formidable but important challenge.

A NEW VERSION OF THE SOOS PLANNING DOCUMENT IS NOW AVAILABLE IN DOC AND PDF FORMATS (also smaller version with no figures - 440kb)

A meeting on SOOS Implementation will be held in Venice on September 26th 2009. Contact Mike Sparrow for further details

A Community White Paper has been submitted to the OceanObs09 meeting and is available for comment

The 3rd SOOS meeting was held in St Petersburg in July 2008. Talks and additional information such as a timeline for publication are available now and a meeting report is now available