CASO: Climate of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean
CASO provides an integrated and interdisciplinary approach to understanding the role of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean in past, present and future climate during the IPY 2007-2008.
CASO is organised into five themes:
- Antarctica and the Southern Ocean in the global water cycle
- Southern hemisphere teleconnections
- Climate processes at the Antarctic continental margin
- Climate - ecosystem - biogeochemistry interactions in the Southern Ocean
- Records of past Antarctic climate variability and change
Objectives:
To obtain a synoptic circumpolar snapshot of the physical environment of the Southern Ocean (collaboration with other IPY activities will extend the snapshot to include biogeochemistry, ecology, and biodiversity).
To enhance understanding of the role of the Southern Ocean in past, present and future climate, including connections between the zonal and meridional circulation of the Southern Ocean, water mass transformation, atmospheric variability, ocean-cryosphere interactions, physical-biogeochemical-ecological linkages, and teleconnections between polar and lower latitudes.
In the austral summer 2007/2008 a cruise with PV Polarstern will occur as part of CASO in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean where a Hybrid Antarctic float observation system (HAFOS) will be established to have for the first time a basinwide continuous observation of the oceanic condition in the ice cover Weddell Sea.
See also: www.clivar.org/organization/southern/CASO