Inclusive science in the South Atlantic Communications Earth & Environment

The South Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation initiative began as a grassroots effort to study the South Atlantic Ocean and its impact on climate. In striving towards this goal, it has also become a platform for the empowerment of women and international scientists. In May 2007, a workshop was organized in Argentina to coordinate efforts to establish the basis for a system to observe the overturning circulation in the South Atlantic. Researchers attending this workshop hailed from Argentina, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States, and were instrumental in spinning up the South Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (SAMOC) initiative. SAMOC goals included measuring the variability of heat, freshwater, and mass transports by the South Atlantic component of the overturning circulation, elucidating their connection to the interocean exchanges (i.e., exchange of South Atlantic waters with the Pacific Ocean and Indian Oceans), and studying water mass property changes and flow pathways.