A report on Southern Ocean

The Antarctic Ocean, as delineated by the draft 4th edition of the International Hydrographic Organization's Limits of Oceans and Seas (2002)
A general delineation of the Antarctic Convergence, sometimes used by scientists as the demarcation of the Southern Ocean
The International Hydrographic Organization's delineation of the "Southern Ocean" has moved steadily southwards since the original 1928 edition of its Limits of Oceans and Seas.
"Southern Ocean" as alternative to the Aethiopian Ocean, 18th century
1928 delineation
1937 delineation
Area inside the black line indicates the area constituting the Pacific Ocean prior to 2002; darker blue areas are its informal current borders following the recreation of the Southern Ocean and the reinclusion of marginal seas
Continents and islands of the Southern Ocean
A map of Australia's official interpretation of the names and limits of oceans and seas around Australia
1564 Typus Orbis Terrarum, a map by Abraham Ortelius showed the imagined link between the proposed continent of Antarctica and South America.
Portrait of Edmund Halley by Godfrey Kneller (before 1721)
"Terres Australes" (sic) label without any charted landmass
James Weddell's second expedition in 1823, depicting the brig and the cutter Beaufroy
Famous official portrait of Captain James Cook who proved that waters encompassed the southern latitudes of the globe. "He holds his own chart of the Southern Ocean on the table and his right hand points to the east coast of Australia on it."
Admiral von Bellingshausen
USS Vincennes at Disappointment Bay, Antarctica in early 1840.
1911 South Polar Regions exploration map
Frank Hurley, As time wore on it became more and more evident that the ship was doomed ( trapped in pack ice), National Library of Australia.
MS Explorer in Antarctica in January 1999. She sank on 23 November 2007 after hitting an iceberg.
Seas that are parts of the Southern Ocean
Manganese nodule
An iceberg being pushed out of a shipping lane by (L to R) USS Burton Island (AGB-1), USS Atka (AGB-3), and USS Glacier (AGB-4) near McMurdo Station, Antarctica, 1965
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is the strongest current system in the world oceans, linking the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific basins.
Location of the Southern Ocean gyres.
Regional Working Group zones for SOOS
Orca (Orcinus orca) hunting a Weddell seal in the Southern Ocean
A wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) on South Georgia
Fish of the Notothenioidei suborder, such as this young icefish, are mostly restricted to the Antarctic and Subantarctic
Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) are the most southerly of Antarctic mammals.
Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) are a keystone species of the food web.
A female warty squid (Moroteuthis ingens)
An adult and sub-adult Minke whale are dragged aboard the Japanese whaling vessel
Severe cracks in an ice pier in use for four seasons at McMurdo Station slowed cargo operations in 1983 and proved a safety hazard.

The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica.

- Southern Ocean
The Antarctic Ocean, as delineated by the draft 4th edition of the International Hydrographic Organization's Limits of Oceans and Seas (2002)

111 related topics with Alpha

Overall
Southern Oscillation Index timeseries 1876–2017.

El Niño–Southern Oscillation

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Irregular periodic variation in winds and sea surface temperatures over the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean, affecting the climate of much of the tropics and subtropics.

Irregular periodic variation in winds and sea surface temperatures over the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean, affecting the climate of much of the tropics and subtropics.

Southern Oscillation Index timeseries 1876–2017.
Southern Oscillation Index correlated with mean sea level pressure.
Diagram of the quasi-equilibrium and La Niña phase of the Southern Oscillation. The Walker circulation is seen at the surface as easterly trade winds which move water and air warmed by the sun towards the west. The western side of the equatorial Pacific is characterized by warm, wet low pressure weather as the collected moisture is dumped in the form of typhoons and thunderstorms. The ocean is some 60 cm higher in the western Pacific as the result of this motion. The water and air are returned to the east. Both are now much cooler, and the air is much drier. An El Niño episode is characterised by a breakdown of this water and air cycle, resulting in relatively warm water and moist air in the eastern Pacific.
The various "Niño regions" where sea surface temperatures are monitored to determine the current ENSO phase (warm or cold)
Average equatorial Pacific temperatures
The 1997 El Niño observed by TOPEX/Poseidon
The regions where the air pressure are measured and compared to generate the Southern Oscillation Index
A Hovmöller diagram of the 5-day running mean of outgoing longwave radiation showing the MJO. Time increases from top to bottom in the figure, so contours that are oriented from upper-left to lower-right represent movement from west to east.
Regional impacts of La Niña.
Colored bars show how El Niño years (red, regional warming) and La Niña years (blue, regional cooling) relate to overall global warming.

Normally the northward flowing Humboldt Current brings relatively cold water from the Southern Ocean northwards along South America's west coast to the tropics, where it is enhanced by up-welling taking place along the coast of Peru.

Notothenia

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Genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Nototheniidae, the notothens or cod icefishes with the species in this genus often having the common name of rockcod.

Genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Nototheniidae, the notothens or cod icefishes with the species in this genus often having the common name of rockcod.

Notothenia angustata (Maori chief)

They are native to the Southern Ocean and other waters around Antarctica.

Mackerel icefish

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Larval stage

The mackerel icefish (Champsocephalus gunnari) is a benthopelagic species of fish found in the Southern Ocean and the southernmost waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

Snailfish

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The Liparidae, commonly known as snailfish or sea snails, are a family of marine scorpaeniform fishes.

The Liparidae, commonly known as snailfish or sea snails, are a family of marine scorpaeniform fishes.

Liparis marmoratus
Liparis catharus
Liparis fabricii
Acantholiparis opercularis
Careproctus ovigerus (juvenile)
Crystallichthys cyclospilus
Elassodiscus tremebundus
Nectoliparis pelagicus
Paraliparis bathybius
Rhodichthys regina
Temnocora candida

Widely distributed from the Arctic to Antarctic Oceans, including the oceans in between, the snailfish family contains more than 30 genera and about 410 described species, but there are also many undescribed species.

Grey-headed albatross

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Large seabird from the albatross family.

Large seabird from the albatross family.

Chick at nest
Flying in Drake's Passage, Southern Ocean

It has a circumpolar distribution, nesting on isolated islands in the Southern Ocean and feeding at high latitudes, further south than any of the other mollymawks.

USS Vincennes (1826) at Disappointment Bay, Antarctica, early 1840

United States Exploring Expedition

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Exploring and surveying expedition of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding lands conducted by the United States.

Exploring and surveying expedition of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding lands conducted by the United States.

USS Vincennes (1826) at Disappointment Bay, Antarctica, early 1840
First Part of Voyage Route: 1. Hampton Roads – 2. Madeira – 3. Rio de Janeiro – 4. Tierra del Fuego – 5. Valparaíso – 6. Callao – 7. Tahiti – 8. Samoa – 9. Sydney – 10. Antarctica – 11. Sandwich Islands (via Fiji)
"Andes near Alparmarca, Peru: Sketched from an Elevation of 16,000 Feet" – Alfred Agate
Return route: 1. Puget Sound – 2. Columbia River – 3. San Francisco – 4. Polynesia – 5. Philippines – 6. Borneo – 7. Singapore – 8. Cape of Good Hope – 9. New York
An 1841 map of the Oregon Territory. Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition.
The Peacock after hitting the bar of the Columbia River
Nukufetau man by Alfred Agate, 1841

In December 1839, the expedition sailed from Sydney into the Antarctic Ocean and reported the discovery of the Antarctic continent on January 16, 1840, when Henry Eld and William Reynolds aboard the Peacock sighted Eld Peak and Reynolds Peak along the George V Coast.

Logo of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources

Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources

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Part of the Antarctic Treaty System.

Part of the Antarctic Treaty System.

Logo of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources

It was established in large part to concerns that an increase in krill catches in the Southern Ocean could have a serious impact on populations of other marine life which are dependent upon krill for food.

Pinniped

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Pinnipeds (pronounced ), commonly known as seals, are a widely distributed and diverse clade of carnivorous, fin-footed, semiaquatic, mostly marine mammals in the clade Pinnipedia.

Pinnipeds (pronounced ), commonly known as seals, are a widely distributed and diverse clade of carnivorous, fin-footed, semiaquatic, mostly marine mammals in the clade Pinnipedia.

Restoration of Puijila
Fossil of Enaliarctos
Fossil skull cast of Piscophoca sp. from Phocidae
Reconstruction of Archaeodobenus akamatsui family Odobenidae
Male and female South American sea lions, showing sexual dimorphism
Light reflection on an elephant seal eye
Frontal view of brown fur seal head
Vibrissae of walrus
Weddell seal underwater
Northern elephant seal resting in water
Walrus on ice off Alaska. This species has a discontinuous distribution around the Arctic Circle.
Harbor seal hauled out on rock
Steller sea lion with white sturgeon
Leopard seal capturing emperor penguin
Orca hunting a Weddell seal
Walrus herd on ice floe
Northern fur seal breeding colony
Male northern elephant seals fighting for dominance and females
Harp seal mother nursing pup
Adult Antarctic fur seal with pups
Walrus males are known to use vocalizations to attract mates.
Sea lion balancing a ball
Inuit seal sculptures at the Linden Museum
Captive sea lion at Kobe Oji Zoo Kobe, Japan
Men killing northern fur seals on Saint Paul Island, Alaska, in the mid-1890s
Protests of Canada's seal hunts
Grey seal on beach occupied by humans near Niechorze, Poland. Pinnipeds and humans may compete for space and resources.

Living pinnipeds mainly inhabit polar and subpolar regions, particularly the North Atlantic, the North Pacific and the Southern Ocean.

Blue whale

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Marine mammal and a baleen whale.

Marine mammal and a baleen whale.

A blue whale skull measuring 19 ft
Aerial view of adult blue whale
The blow of a blue whale
The small dorsal fin of this blue whale is just visible on the far left.
A blue whale calf with its mother
Dead blue whale on flensing platform
Researchers examine a dead blue whale killed from a collision by a ship

In the Southern Ocean, baleen whales appear to feed on Antarctic krill of different sizes, which may lessen competition between them.

65th parallel south

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Circle of latitude that is 65 degrees south of the Earth's equatorial plane.

Circle of latitude that is 65 degrees south of the Earth's equatorial plane.

It crosses the Southern Ocean and Antarctica.