• Home
• Search:
• Members only

• About
• Science
  & Data
• News
• Events
• Antarctic
  Treaty
• Antarctic
  Information
• International
  Polar Year
• Publications
• Communication
  and Education
• Contacts

You are in:  Home » Science & Data » Standing Scientific Group on Physical Sciences » SCAR/SCOR Oceanography Group

SCAR/SCOR Expert Group on Oceanography

• new Expert Group in Oceanography web site: http://www.clivar.org/organization/southern/expertgroup/index.htm
• List of Group Members
• Expert Group Ocean Observations
• OCEAN-READER - Southern Ocean READER is a portal for links to temperature, salinity and ocean current data from the Southern Ocean.

Terms of reference:

• to encourage an inter-disciplinary approach to Southern Ocean observations, modelling and research, recognizing the inter- dependence of physical, chemical and biological processes in the ocean at present and in the past;
• to facilitate coordination between the physical oceanographic research groups currently active and those planning research in the Southern Ocean;
• to identify historical and reference data set of value to researchers, focusing initially on physical oceanography data
• to encourage the exchange of information with operational agencies.

The group recognizes the need to develop initiatives for education and training.

The initial focus of the Group will be on physical oceanography, to ensure that a comprehensive view is obtained of the physical processes on which biological and chemical processes ultimately depend. The activities of the Group are complementary to, and do not duplicate, the activities of other groups currently active in Southern Ocean research, such as Southern Ocean GLOBEC, the CLIVAR/CliC/SCAR Southern Ocean Implementation Panel, iAnZone (which is affliated to both SCAR and SCOR), and future projects sponsored by SCOR, such as GEOTRACES, the Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (IMBER) project, and the Surface Ocean-Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS).

• An informal meeting of the SCAR/SCOR Oceanography Group, Cambridge, 28th June 2005

• First SCAR/SCOR Oceanography Expert Group Meeting report, Venice, 7-8 October 2005

• Second SCAR/SCOR Oceanography Expert Group Meeting report, Hobart,10-11 July 2006

Co-sponsored and affiliated ocean programmes:

The iAnZone programme is affiliated to the SCAR Oceanography Group and to SCOR.

SCAR co-sponsors with

• the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP):
• the Climate and Cryosphere Programme (CliC);
• the Southern Ocean Implementation Panel (with CLIVAR and CliC);
• the International Programme on Antarctic Buoys (IPAB).

SCAR co-sponsors with the Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics Programme (GLOBEC) the GLOBEC Southern ocean activity (SO-GLOBEC).

SCAR co-sponsors with the Sloan Foundation the Circum-Antarctic Census of Marine Life (CAML) of the global Census of Marine Life (CoML)

SCAR co-leads with WCRP the Cryosphere Theme component of the Partnership for an Integrated Global Observing System (IGOS).

SCAR co-sponsors with SCOR the interdisciplinary Southern Ocean component of the joint IAPSO/IABO meeting in Cairns in August 2005.

SCAR co-sponsors with SCOR the Integrated Analyses of Circumpolar Climate Interactions and Ecosytem Dynamics in the Southern Ocean ICCED

Plans for Ocean Observing Systems in the Arctic and Antarctic

The scientific community has been actively preparing plans to make observations in both oceans as contributions to the International Polar Year (2007-9). These plans could provide the basis for polar contributions to the Global ocean Observing System (a GOOS). The IPY plan calls for emplacement of observing systems that will provide a legacy long after IPY is over.

1. The Arctic Ocean Science Board has produced a comprehensive plan, which can be found on the web at:
   http://www.aosb.org/ipy.html (you should see three paragraphs on that page, with a clickable plan at the end of the third paragraph).
2. the CLIVAR/CliC/SCAR Southern Ocean Implementation panel, has also produced a comprehensive plan, which can be found on the web at:
   http://www.clivar.org/organization/southern/index.htm#NEWS (go down to international polar year, in which the SO Panel strategy document is downloadable.
3. the iAnZone group, which is affiliated to both SCOR and SCAR has also produced a plan, for Antarctic coastal seas, which can be found at: http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/fac/physocean/ianzone/, see iAnZone proposal for international polar year, on home-page at left.
4. a meeting co-sponsored by SCAR, CAML and POGO agreed that the development of a Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) was a high priority for the IPY and beyond. Details can be found in the meeting report.