Organisation’s vision:

That sustained observations of dynamics and change of the physics, chemistry, geology and biology of the Southern Ocean system should be readily accessible to provide a foundation for enabling the international scientific community to advance understanding of the Southern Ocean and for managers to address critical societal challenges.

Organisation’s mission:

To facilitate the collection and delivery of essential observations on dynamics and change of Southern Ocean systems to all international stakeholders (researchers, governments, industries), through design, advocacy and implementation of cost-effective observing and data delivery systems.

Organisation’s objectives (if different from the Mission):

1) Facilitate the design and implementation of a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary observing system for the Southern Ocean
2) Unify and enhance current observation efforts and leverage further resources across disciplines, and between nations and programs
3) Facilitate linking of sustained long-term observations to provide a system of enhanced data discovery and delivery, utilising existing data centres and programmatic efforts combined with, as needed, purpose-built data management and storage systems
4) Provide services to communicate, coordinate, advocate and facilitate SOOS objectives and activities.

Keywords

Activities

• Data management, interoperability, sharing, access, open data policies
• Defining strategies/road maps/priorities for Earth (ocean) observing/science
• Technical coordination of ocean observing