IMOS - Southern Ocean Time Series (SOTS) - Multi-year Gridded Product

This report describes the production of a multi-year record, at hourly (UTC) frequency and standard pressures, from quality-controlled observations collected by moored sensors at the Southern Ocean Time Series observatory (SOTS). The product compiles measurements from all SOTS moorings deployed in the period 2009-2022. Production of the gridded product used all data flagged 1 (good) and 2 (probably good), as identified by the previous QC procedures. The gridded product is available as a netCDF file from the AODN Data Portal. This report should be consulted when using the data.

The Southern Ocean Time Series (SOTS) Observatory located near 141°E and 47°S provides high temporal resolution observations in Subantarctic waters. It is focused on the Subantarctic Zone because waters formed at the surface in this region by deep wintertime convection slide under warmer subtropical and tropical waters, carrying CO2 and heat into the deep ocean, where it is out of contact with the atmosphere. This process also supplies oxygen for deep ocean ecosystems, and exports nutrients that fuel ~70% of global ocean primary production. Local biological production also impacts carbon cycling and the SOTS moorings measure several variables important to these processes.