This dataset contains the CTD casts conducted during the SO-CHIC (Southern Ocean Carbon and Heat Impact on Climate) cruise (December 2021/January 2022, S.A. AgulhasII). The cruise report is available at https://zenodo.org/record/6948850 for details.

To contribute to reducing uncertainties in climate change predictions, the overall objective of the SO-CHIC project is to understand and quantify variability of heat and carbon budgets in the Southern Ocean through an investigation of the key processes controlling exchanges between the atmosphere, ocean and sea ice using a combination of observational and modelling approaches.

The Southern Ocean regulates the global climate by controlling heat and carbon exchanges between the atmosphere and the ocean. Rates of climate change on decadal time scales ultimately depend on oceanic processes taking place in the Southern Ocean, yet too little is known about the underlying processes. Limitations come both from the lack of observations in this extreme environment and its inherent sensitivity to intermittent small-scale processes that are not captured in current Earth system models.