The Southern Ocean is a key regulator of the global climate system, driving air–sea exchanges, deep water upwelling, and the absorption of heat and carbon. It has slowed global surface warming and supports a major share of the biological carbon pump. Yet, rapid environmental changes and model uncertainties raise questions about whether these critical services will persist.
Key scientific questions include:
- Heat: Has global warming reached Antarctica and the Southern Ocean? How much heat is exchanged among the ocean, ice, and atmosphere, and how is it transported?
- Freshwater: Is the polar water cycle intensifying? How do precipitation, evaporation, sea-ice and ice-sheet melt alter salinity, stratification, and circulation?
- Carbon: Is the Southern Ocean a source or sink for CO₂, especially in winter? How are the biological carbon pump and seasonal fluxes changing?
- Other elements: What are the budgets and trends of trace gases, isotopes, and nutrients such as iron and manganese?
Scientific challenges:
- Southern Ocean surface waters have resisted global warming trends, though recent record heat events and deeper ocean warming highlight urgent knowledge gaps.
- The freshwater cycle remains poorly constrained but strongly influences ice sheet mass balance and ocean circulation.
- The carbon cycle’s response to increased upwelling and its role in mitigating global warming is uncertain, with recent evidence suggesting larger-than-expected winter CO₂ release.
Approach:
Antarctica InSync will tackle these challenges through year-round, circumpolar, interdisciplinary observations, focusing on heat, freshwater, carbon, and elemental budgets across the ocean, atmosphere, and cryosphere—especially in underexplored regions and during austral winter.
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