Fieldwork Map
Improving Southern Ocean fieldwork coordination
ICED has identified the coordination of Southern Ocean fieldwork as a major priority. A coordinated approach to fieldwork will help to realise the full potential of planned field effort and will allow targeting of future circumpolar research across all relevant disciplines including ecology, physics and biogeochemistry.
ICED is developing a series of interactive maps representing Southern Ocean research. This initiative will provide a central focus for fieldwork planning and coordination activities in the Southern Ocean, across all disciplines, for at least the next decade.
Advances in fieldwork mapping
Initial attempts to map field effort have provided useful tools to begin fieldwork coordination. We have now begun to develop these ideas further by making use of the latest virtual globe and data sharing technologies to include information entered via the web using a system of virtual forms for data entry that uploads directly to Google Earth.
Each project will initially be represented by a placemark. The placemark will link to more detailed information about each project. We plan to develop this to display cruise tracks (planned and completed) and long-term monitoring sites. The maps will enable information to be brought together and visualised in an accessible way for observing, coordinating and planning future Southern Ocean fieldwork.
Future fieldwork planning
The ICED Google Earth layer already presents information on the projects
belonging to the ICED-IPY consortium and which are underway during the
International Polar Year.
open this
Google Earth file. We are now building on this with a view to fieldwork
planning for ecosystem studies across the entire Southern Ocean. ICED plans to
convene a Southern Ocean fieldwork workshop between 2013 and 2017. More
information will be posted here in due course.
Adding your project details to the ICED map
Once you have installed Google Earth on your computer, follow these simple instructions to display your project details on the map.
This project is currently linked with the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS), Climate Variability and Predictability/Climate and Cryosphere (CLIVAR/CliC) and Climate in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean (CASO). We are in the process of forming other programme links.
For more information about this project contact ICED.
