Report of workshop "Future science plans for physical, chemical and biological oceanography in the Southern Ocean"

Abstract

A workshop on future science plans for "Physical, chemical and biological oceanography in the Southern Ocean" was held on February 18,2000,at the National Institute of Polar Research with 15 participants. In this workshop ship opportunities in the near future were introduced. In the first year of the Sixth Phase of the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JAREVI program, JARE43-47), which will begin in 2001,two Japanese research vessels, R/V Hakuho Maru (Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo) and T/S Umitaka Maru (Tokyo University of Fisheries) will be used in oceanographic studies in the Southern Ocean during December 2001 and January 2002. The target area is around 65°S and 150°E. In addition to these two vessels, Shirase will visit the same area on her return cruise from Syowa Station in mid-March. Moreover, the coordinating committee for the science program "Antarctic Ocean in Earth System (AOES project)" in NIPR is planning to charter a research vessel in February of 2002. When the chartered vessel is employed, multi-ship observations will be conducted in the same sea area. This will be the first time that such time serial observations over the whole summer, using more than one ship, will be done in the Southern Ocean. Core measurements, which are carried out on all vessels, should be important to success of the time series multi-ship observations. We will continue further discussion in coming workshops.