The Southern Ocean Observing System Executive Officer: Louise Newman (SOOS) Chairs: Mike Meredith, Oscar Schofield

Why The Southern Ocean ? Central To Earth System - Connects all ocean basins
- Site of key water mass formation - Drives global ocean circulation - Draws down up to of anthropogenic atmospheric CO2 -Accounts for ~70% of excess heat transferred from the ocean -Southern Ocean winds & buoyancy fluxes drive large scale deep meridional overturning circulation - Effects global sea level - Vertical exchange of nutrients fertilize of biological production north of 30 S

Lumpkin and Speer 2007

Why The Southern Ocean ? Unique Ecosystems & myriads of evolutionary innovations

Temperature Trends (degrees C per year) -0.2 0.2

- Regional warming (fastest winter warming on

Earth)

The Southern Ocean is changing rapidly in our lifetimes .

- Decreased salinity in upper and abyssal ocean - Basin-wide acidification - Regional decreases in sea ice - Shifts in ecosystems Need to monitor and understand the changes in Melting of West Antarctic ice sheet order to predict future changes, and mitigate Melting of West Antarctic ice sheet impacts. Thanks Andy Clarke (BAS) Supports the need for sustained, and internationally coordinated observations of the Southern Ocean
Collapse of Larsen B Ice Sheet
Thanks Andy Clarke (BAS)

arson-B ice shelf after its collapse Thanks to BAS & A. Clarke

The problem: The Southern Ocean is big (beyond the capabilities of a single nation)

Despite the large scale: Requires high resolution measurements. Requires interdisciplinary measurements Eddy Kinetic Energy

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Delworth et al. in press Thanks to Jorge Sarmiento

The problem: The Southern Ocean is rough (need new technologies to sample the whole system)

Therefore we propose SOOS MISSION: To establish a multidisciplinary system to deliver the sustained observations of the Southern Ocean that are needed to address key challenges of scientific and societal relevance, including climate change, sea-level rise and the impacts of globalWallis AAD B. change on marine ecosystems.

Scientific Steering Committee

Membership: Expertise Scientific standing Programmatic connections National representation

SOOS: Vision & Progress to date

- SOOS will provide a coordinated approach to observing the SO -Currently, many independent (mono-disciplinary) programs with individual infrastructure, data routes etc.

-Sponsored by SCAR & SCOR, endorsed by POGO, CLIVAR and CliC

- SOOS Initial Science and Implementation Strategy 2011 - www.soos.aq - International Project Office in Hobart, Australia (since end 2011) - hosted by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (University of Tasmania), with additional support from the Australian Antarctic Division.

Who would use SOOS and SOOS products? - Local planners (sea-level rise) - Research community
- Resource managers (e.g., CCAMLR) - Policy makers (when to act? Consequences of not acting?) - IPCC

Antarctic tourism Shipping operators Weather and climate forecaster Educators

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Science Themes
Key science challenges identified as most pressing issues, both scientifically and societally - to be addressed by the SOOS: 1) Role of Southern Ocean in global freshwater and heat balance 2) Stability of Southern Ocean overturning circulation 3) Stability of Antarctic ice sheet and future contribution to sea-level rise 4) Future of Southern Ocean carbon uptake 5) Future of Antarctic sea ice 6) Impacts of global change on Antarctic ecosystems
IPAB P. Holland

Achieving the mission

Many international/national programmes involved in Southern Ocean observations. SOOS will work with these to: - Design and implement SO observing system - Advocate and guide development of new technologies

- Unify current observation efforts and leverage further resources

- Integrate / communicate between nations, international and national projects, and across traditional disciplinary boundaries - Facilitate and develop a data system with seamless access to essential data and data products

Design and implement a SO Observing System

End goal is a sustained, coherent, multidisciplinary observing system.

- Design optimal sampling plans for all variables - Need quantified targets (number/frequency of required observations) Some have already been defined, others lag behind.
- Determination of stage of readiness of Essential Ocean Variables and platforms - Identification of gaps in knowledge and observations

What data will fuel SOOS? (Stations)

Collate the field data collected at the field stations.

Overtime ensure some degree of standardization and coordination

What data will fuel SOOS?

Research vessels Underway systems of tourist vessels

What data will fuel SOOS? Robots (profilers, gliders, AUVs)

What data will fuel SOOS?

Sea ice measurements, in situ and from space

National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center

Marcel Nicolaus, AWI

What data will fuel SOOS? The Antarctic Fauna

Unify current efforts and leverage resources: Examples

Hydrographic sections
- Addition of biological sensors - National ownership of sections by countries not yet involved (Korea, China etc) - Extension of sections through the sea ice Extension of the SOOS - Deployments from fishing vessels through collaboration with CCAMLR - Deployments from tourist vessels, through collaboration with IAATO

Example of SOOS development: Southern Ocean Ecosystems Many physical components are well developed.

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Species diversity and system complexity make ecosystems a challenge. Need to identify key components of an ecosystem that must be monitored, how often, and where. Southern Ocean Sentinel project working to address this supported by SOOS. Sentinel will contribute to design of SOOS and is connecting physical variables with biological variables in a seamless way. SOOS proposal for SCOR Working Group with involvement of GOOS - to identify biological parameters/variables that require monitoring on a global scale.

Delivering the outputs

Key goal: a unified Southern Ocean data portal Enable easy access to data and data products Data Management Sub-Committee - representatives from international, national and programmatic data centres. - Tasked with developing the data policy - Identifying data products to provide and infrastructure required - Advocate for data contributions Need participation and investment to give substantial benefit to science and societal outcomes

Where are we? SOOS is just beginning, so open for all as the journey is just beginning

Want more information?

Contact the SOOS International Project Office: Louise Newman (Executive Officer) newman@soos.aq or Check out the SOOS website at www.soos.aq mds68@cam.ac.uk

IPO hosted by:

The Australian Antarctic Division