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You are in:  Home » Science & Data » Standing Scientific Group on Physical Sciences

SCAR/SCOR Expert Group on Oceanography - Archive

For current information, please see the Oceanography Group page

Original 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).

We plan to hold the first meeting of the Group on Friday and Saturday October 7 and 8, in Venice, Italy, to capitalize on the fact that the Third International Conference on the Oceanography of the Ross Sea takes place there form 10 to 14 October, and that iAnZone will be holding it's 9th Coordination Meeting there as well.

Co-sponsored and affiliated ocean programmes:

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

• the Southern Ocean Implementation Panel (co-sponsorship with CLIVAR and CliC)

• the International Programme on Antarctic Buoys (IPAB) (co-sponsorship with WCRP and CliC)
  

• the GLOBEC Southern Ocean activity (SO-GLOBEC) (co-sponsorship with GLOBEC)

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

• the Integrated Analyses of Circumpolar Climate Interactions and Ecosytem Dynamics in the Southern Ocean ICED (co-sponsorship with SCOR)
• the interdisciplinary Southern Ocean component of the joint IAPSO/IABO meeting in Cairns in August 2005 (co-sponsored with SCOR)

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, ably led by Bob Dickson, 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, ably led by Steve Rintoul, has also produced a comprehensive plan, which can be found on the web at: http://www.clivar.org/organization/southern/southern.php
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.

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