Shenfu Dong

Abstract The Ship Of Opportunity Expendable BathyThermograph (SOOP-XBT) Network has been measuring upper ocean temperature aboard volunteer vessels over multiple decades in key locations of the global ocean. Through international collaboration, these data are systematically collected, quality-controlled and made available to the scientific and operational communities.

1 Introduction Linking the world's major oceans, the Southern Ocean plays a critical role in the global ocean circulation and the meridional overturning circulation. The most significant flow in the Southern Ocean, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), is driven by the westerly winds and flows eastward surrounding Antarctica. The ACC plays a crucial role in water mass formation and exchanges of heat, salt, and nutrients between the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans.

Abstract The current state-of-the-art climate models when combined together suggest that the anthropogenic weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) has already begun since the mid-1980s. However, continuous direct observational records during the past two decades have shown remarkable resilience of the AMOC.