The Southern Ocean Sea Level Centre (SOSLC)

The Southern Ocean Sea Level Centre (SOSLC), currently funded by the Australian Antarctic Division, is to fulfil the aims of the Sea Level Pilot Project for the Southern Ocean, (SLPP-SO) supported by the Working Group at the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) Workshop No. 69 in Leningrad, May 1990, and the Third Session of the IOC Group of Experts on the Global Sea Level Observing System (GLOSS) in Paris, October 1992. In January 1995 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Antarctic Division, Department of Environment, Sports and Territories, the National Tidal Facility of The Flinders University of South Australia and the Australian Surveying and Land Information Group (AUSLIG) on the establishment of the Southern Ocean Sea Level Centre.

The project seeks to improve knowledge of sea levels in the Southern Ocean, which is defined as all water poleward from 30°S, and to foster increased international cooperation into Southern Ocean sea level research. Recognising the significance of the Southern Ocean in World scale circulation and its links with issues of climate change, the SOSLC aims to secure high quality, geodetically controlled sea level data from the Southern Ocean in order to :

- support oceanographic, geodetic and geographic research requirements for national and international programs

- enable a focus upon sea level measurements as indicators of ocean dynamics and in the context of climate change

- assist in datum control for mapping and charting

- supply tidal predictions for shipping and operational needs including the safety of ships, personnel and equipment

The SOSLC is now into its 9 month of establishment, and to date has contacted over 60 individuals and organisations to obtain sea level data from stations in the Southern Ocean and on the Antarctic contintent. Contributions of data to the SOSLC have amounted to almost 50 sites with some time series that date back to the late 19th Century. Major contributors are: the University of Hawaii Sea Level Center, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the British Oceanographic Data Centre, the Australian Antarctic Division and of course the National Tidal Facility. It is hoped that more data will be obtained in the near future from the few remaining countries that have collected sea level in this area.

Click here to see a plot of sea level stations in the Southern Ocean.

In compliance with the aims of the SOSLC, the Centre is now in a state of operation to ensure that this sea level data is available to any group wishing to facilitate research in the Southern Ocean. Another product that is becoming available are plots of the sea level anomalies in the Southern Ocean produced from TOPEX / POSEIDON satellite data. It is intended that these plots will be available over the World Wide Web within the next 2 months. Keep an eye on the SOSLC Web page : URL http://www.ntf.flinders.edu.au/TEXT/PRJS/SOUTH/south.html

For more information on the SOSLC, please contact Ms Marion Tait at the above address.