Observing and Modelling the Meridional Overturning Circulation in the South Atlantic (SAMOC)

Overview

The meridional overturning circulation (MOC) in the Atlantic is a key element of the time-variable coupled climate system and may have played a significant role in the subsurface sequestration of heat during the recent global warming hiatus. New in the observing systems monitoring this event is the SAMOC (South Atlantic MOC) Basin Wide Array (SAMBA). 

 

Extending from South America to Africa, this system includes efforts to monitor zonal fluxes across the Drake Passage and the gap between Africa and Antarctica, which is very poorly sampled to the current date. The SAMOC Working Group seeks to enhance SAMOC by strengthening  the existing international partnership and attracting more participants. 

How SAMOC contributes to POGO priority areas

POGO advocates for a global coverage in the ocean observing system, which is why addressing the imbalance of available observation systems between the northern and southern hemisphere is at the heart of the POGO Strategy. Coordinating the ongoing and near future actions related to SAMOC contributes to this aim. Working Group participants will attend scientific reunions concerning SAMOC and will hold frequent online discussions in order to design an action plan aimed at the ultimate goal of enhancing the MOC observing system in the South Atlantic.​

SAMOC Working Group findings and recommendations:

 SAMOC factsheet - published August 2017

 Update article published in POGO Newsletter issue 37 (Aug 2019): SAMBAR: Enhancing the SAMOC Basin-Wide Array

"In 2017, following recommendations from a SAMOC Working Group sponsored by POGO, a proposal to enhance the observational grid was submitted to the São Paulo State Research Foundation (FAPESP), in Brazil. This new project, named SAMBAR, was approved and started in December 2017 (https://bv.fapesp.br/en/auxilios/98525)."

Project Participants

Working Group leader:

Edmo J.D. Campos, Oceanographic Institute, University of Sao Paulo (IOUSP), Brazil

 

Participants:

 

Olga Sato, IOUSP, Brazil

 

Regina Rodrigues, IOUSP, Brazil

 

​Andrei Polejack, MCTI, Brazil

 

José Muelbert, Univ. Federal Rio Grande (FURG), Brazil

 

José Luiz Azevedo, IO-FURG, Brazil

 

Maurício M. Mata, IO-FURG, Brazil

 

Alberto Piola, Univ. de Buenos Aires and Serv. Hidgrafia Naval, Argentina

 

​Maria Paz Chidichimo, National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Argentina

 

Daniel Valla, Univ. de Buenos Aires, Argentina

 

Silvia Garzoli, CIMAS/Univ. Miami and NOAA/AOML, USA

 

Christopher Meinen, NOAA/AOML, USA

 

Renellys Perez, CIMAS/Univ. Miami and NOAA/AOML, USA

 

Shenfu Dong, CIMAS/Univ. Miami and NOAA/AOML, USA

 

Sabrina Speich, ENS/LMD/IPSL Paris, France

 

​Thierry Terre, LPO, Ifremer, Brest, France

 

Mike Roberts, Ocean & Coasts, South Africa

 

John Field, Univ. Cape Town, South Africa

 

Coleen Moloney, Univ. Cape Town, South Africa

 

​Isabelle Ansorge, Univ. Cape Town, South Africa

 

Pedro Monteiro, CSIR, South Africa

 

Susan Avery, WHOI, USA

 

E. Moskness, IMR, Norway

 

David Smeed, NOC, UK