2012 Articles

Circumpolar View of the Southern Ocean from 1962 to 1992

Gordon, Arnold L.

The 1962-1992 period spanning the Eltanin/Islas Orcadas expeditions to the Ice Station Weddell, and the following World Ocean Circulation Experiment, may be viewed as the closing phase of an era of broad based, circumpolar surveys of the Southern Ocean. Today, investigating the spatial and temporal dimensions of such complex ocean and it’s coupling to the climate system, requires the integration of observations from ships, aircrafts, satellites, tethered instrumentation and autonomous vehicles with numerical models. However, the adventure of Southern Ocean observations remains the same, requiring not just the right people and technology, but also special ships capable of working within the harsh Antarctic environment, where unknowns await discovery.