SOUTHERN OCEAN

Research in Souther ocean area

Since 2013, Argo-Italy has been involved in the PNRA (Programma Nazionale di Ricerca in Antartide) providing surface drifters and Argo floats to be deployed in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). Each year, during the austral summer, drifters and floats are deployed both in the Pacific and in the Atlantic sectors of the ACC, along the New Zealand-Antarctic and South Africa-Antarctic (following the Good-Hope line) routes, respectively. These observing platforms provide valuable data allowing to overpass sampling limitations (sea and weather conditions, research vessel accessibility) that significantly affect the Southern Ocean in-situ data collection.