INTERNATIONAL BACKGROUND

The international science community has long recognised the need for a coordinated and integrated approach to observing the Southern Ocean. Under the direction of the Scientific Committee for Oceanic Research (SCAR) and the Scientific Committee for Oceanic Research (SCOR), and with the input of the World Climate Research Programmes Climate and Cryosphere (CliC) and Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) projects, and the Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO), the concept for the Southern Ocean Observing System was developed - SOOS. The SOOS International Project Office was officially opened in August 2011, hosted by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) at the University of Tasmania, Australia.
The SOOS primary objective are design and implement a comprehensive and multidisciplinary observing system for the Southern Ocean for unify current observation efforts and leverage further resources and effectively integrate and coordinate national and international projects and programmes, across traditional disciplinary boundaries and between nations, so contribution of research vessels to the in-situ global ocean observing system is one example how one could break down the fallacious research-operational divide. Making oceanographic research observations fully and freely available in real time or so is a very difficult task, both technically and politically, but due to vast ocean space and relative scarceness of in-situ data, engagement of the oceanographic research community is a prerequisite for developing a comprehensive ocean observing system anywhere in the world oceans. This is especially true in the Southern Ocean with its unique and extreme challenges for in-situ measurements. Realistically, the Southern Ocean oceanographic research community is, and for many years will continue to be, both the primary provider and primary user of in-situ ocean data. Thus, incorporating research community products in the observing system, and simultaneously designing the system to help address research community hypotheses, will be absolutely critical in ensuring we can monitor the Southern Ocean.
The wealth of research observations in the Southern Ocean is broad. Observations have been carried out under the auspices of a number of major cooperative programs. The data provided by these programs is clearly an enormous contribution to our understanding of the Southern Ocean and as such, these data ought to be incorporated, whenever possible, as part of the observing system.