Southern Ocean Observing Systems

The Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) is an international initiative of the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). In 2023, the SOOS IPO will be sponsored through a new partnership between the University of Tasmania Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies (hosts), the Tasmanian Government Department of State Growth, and CSIRO. Sponsorship of SOOS has grown to over 15 sponsors from eight nations, and connects global science, data, logistics, policy, governance and industry communities working in the Southern Ocean.

The SOOS mission is to facilitate the collection and delivery of essential observations of the Southern Ocean to all international stakeholders the development of observing and data-delivery systems. Towards this mission, SOOS has established several regional networks to better coordinate national and international collection of observations in different sectors of the Southern Ocean. We have provided a framework for development of community-led Working Groups that enhance our observational capabilities. In collaboration with a number of international communities, we provide a Database of Upcoming Expeditions to the Southern Ocean (DueSouth), to better support collaboration in field planning. We also provide a data discovery tool “SOOSmap” that supports discovery of data by observational platform type or variable. All of these products are delivered through the SOOS website (www.soos.aq) as contributions to the 5-Year Implementation Plan, which has now been finalized and is openly available.