Facts & Stats
GROWTH OF SOOS | The Southern Ocean is changing rapidly, with global consequences for climate, sea level and ocean circulation. Yet it remains one of the least-observed parts of our planet.
Over the past 15 years, SOOS has brought the international community together to coordinate observations, improve data access, and strengthen collaboration. Today, SOOS connects more than 1,000 members through 16 international networks and 7 partnerships, helping deliver the sustained observations needed to understand and respond to change in the Southern Ocean.
SOOS highlights during the last implementation period (2021-2025)
SOOS PROGRESS | In 2022, SOOS released its SOOS 2021-2025 Science and Implementation Plan (Newman et al., 2022) which articulated the scientific priorities for the Southern Ocean community through identification of key gaps in the observational network. In the plan, five-community agreed, crosscutting Science Themes were identified, each with a number of Key Science Challenges of specific priority for the community over the next 5-10 years. These Themes and Challenges incorporated many crossdisciplinary scientific drivers which require coordinated observational and data delivery efforts to understand. Additionally, several “Foundational Capabilities” requiring parallel advances were recognised.
ADVANCING FAIR DATA | The vision of a truly interoperable system of data management for the Southern Ocean depends on many people and organisations across the globe working in similar ways to allow their systems to interoperate. This cooperation is needed both at the broadest policy levels and in managing every individual dataset.
In 2022, the SOOS DMSC updated the SOOS Data Policy based on the Alignment of Polar Data Policies - Recommended Principles report and to align with the SCAR Data Policy, 2022 to make data more Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR).
The SOOS DMSC in collaboration with the broader polar and ocean data community, have developed a number of best practice documents to guide to improve data FAIRness. These include the Alignment of Polar Data Policies - Recommended Principles (Tronstad et al., 2021), POLDER Best Practice Guide to Implementing Schema.org for Data Discovery (Bricher et al., 2023), and A Brief Guide to Publishing Data for the Polar Research Community.
Enhancing observations of the southern ocean will be of limited value unless the resulting data are open and FAIR. SOOS’s data management efforts have led to the development of data tools for the community to improve visibility and accessibility of Southern Ocean data (such as SOOSmap, DueSouth and the SOOS Metadata Portal).
SHARING KNOWLEDGE | Over the last 15 years, SOOS has established a broad network encompassing oceanographic and Antarctic communities. To showcase the strength of SOOS, the SOOS network and provide a chance for the Southern Ocean community to come together, SOOS convened its first large international conference in 2023. The SOOS Symposium 2023 was a great success bringing together international scientists from around the globe in a unique opportunity to reconnect after COVID, share and plan for the future at a time when rapid changes (including record low sea-ice levels) were being observed in Antarctica. At the conclusion of the Symposium, a community-agreed statement was released which had swift and strong impact across media around the world, moving SOOS to the forefront advocating for the importance of the Southern Ocean in the global climate system and the critical need for an integrated, sustained and coordinated observing system in the Southern Ocean.
