News & Updates

[Nov-2006] A unique set of roughly 320,000 individual sub-surface measurements of salinity (conductivity), temperature, and depth (CTD) taken by elephant seals which carried bio-logging and telemetry devices was added to the ECCO state estimation system as new observational constraints. The data were kindly provided by the Southern Elephant Seals as Oceanographic Samplers (SEaOS) project involving the University of St. Andrew's NERC Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) and the British Antarctic Survey. The uniqueness of the data derives from the ability of seals to go under the sea-ice which covers large parts of the Southern Ocean poleward of 60°S during austral winter and where in-situ data are not available otherwise.