Related topics: climate change

The lows and lows of Antarctic sea ice

Data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) have revealed another summer of exceptionally low sea-ice extent around Antarctica.

After intense predictions, what happened to El Niño?

After many predictions, on September 19, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology formally announced an El Niño for the summer of 2023/2024, several months after it had been declared by other international meteorological agencies.

Good things don't come in threes for Antarctic sea ice

As this month marks the third consecutive summer with extremely low sea-ice cover around Antarctica, new statistical research points to fundamental changes taking place in the polar Southern Ocean.

Scientists discover microbe unique to New Zealand

Professor Matthew Stott co-leads a team of researchers from Canterbury and Waikato universities that has identified an endemic genus of geothermal microorganisms—a discovery believed to be a world-first.

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Southern Ocean

The Southern Ocean, also known as the Great Southern Ocean, the Antarctic Ocean and the South Polar Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean south of 60° S latitude. The International Hydrographic Organization has designated the Southern Ocean as an oceanic division encircling Antarctica. Geographers disagree on the Southern Ocean's northern boundary or even its existence (see below), sometimes considering the waters part of the South Pacific, South Atlantic, and Indian Oceans instead.

Some scientists consider the Antarctic Convergence, an ocean zone which fluctuates seasonally, as separating the Southern Ocean from other oceans, rather than 60° S. This ocean zone is where cold, northward flowing waters from the Antarctic mix with warmer sub-Antarctic waters.

The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) regards the Southern Ocean as the fourth-largest of the five principal oceanic divisions and the latest-defined one. The IHO promulgated the decision on its existence in 2000, though many mariners have long regarded the term as traditional. The Southern Ocean appeared in the IHO's Limits of Oceans and Seas second edition (1937), disappeared from the third edition (1957), and resurfaced in the fourth edition (not yet[update] formally adopted due to a number of unresolved disputes, including the lodgement of a reservation by Australia). This change reflects the importance placed by oceanographers on ocean currents.[clarification needed]

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