A new observing system for the Southern Ocean

The EU is funding the SYNCHRONY project, involving 27 international partners (including the Earth and Life Institute, UCLouvain), to carry out coordinated observations, to harmonise data, and to improve our understanding and ability to predict climate and ecosystem changes around Antarctica.

The EU project SYNCHRONY has been launched on August 1st, 2026. It aims to contribute to a better understanding of the rapid changes taking place in the complex system comprising the ocean, ice and atmosphere in the Southern Ocean and around the Antarctic ice shelves, as well as their impacts on the global climate and biodiversity. 

Led by the Alfred Wegener Institute (Germany), researchers from a total of 27 global partner institutions will work in interdisciplinary work packages to optimise and expand the existing observing system, harmonise data streams, and create new data products that document the state of the climate system and biodiversity. 

The project thus also provides an important foundation for the international UN Ocean Decade initiative Antarctica InSync and builds on existing research consortia. 

The EU will fund SYNCHRONY with around 8.5 million euros over the next four years.

The significant decline in sea ice cover

The Southern Ocean and the Antarctic shelf seas have been undergoing massive changes for several years. Sea ice cover, for example, is declining dramatically, large parts of the West Antarctic ice sheet are being lost, and deep-water formation appears to be declining. 

The full implications of these abrupt changes for the local and global climate and the ecosystems remain unclear. We are currently unable to predict these changes. 

This knowledge gap is largely due to insufficient observational data and the inaccurate or missing representation of processes in Earth system models. 

Urgent action and enhanced international cooperation are therefore required not only to better observe and understand the complex changes in the coupled ocean-ice-atmosphere-biosphere system, but also to provide the basis for political decision-making that will protect this region in the long term.

Interdisciplinary activities

Joint cross-platform missions and circumpolar, multidisciplinary observation networks are indispensable for this effort in this vast and inaccessible region — yet they are still not available to a sufficient extent. 

Major international initiatives in the coming years will be key building blocks in closing this observational gap: Antarctica InSync (2027 to 2030), the 5th International Polar Year 2032/2033, and the implementation of the European Ocean Pact. 

They build on the existing efforts of networks such as SCAR (Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research) and SOOS (Southern Ocean Observing System).

SYNCHRONY will now be another crucial building block. The project aims to establish an internationally coordinated and synchronized observing system in the Southern Ocean and the coastal regions of Antarctica. It coordinates interdisciplinary activities that specifically contribute to Antarctica InSync.

One of the largest observing network in polar environments

The Antarctica InSync initiative was launched by several members of the Antarctic Treaty System. 

It forms part of the UN Ocean Decade and supports the UN 2030 Agenda, in particular Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 13 and 14, which focus on measures to combat climate change and its impacts, as well as the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and marine resources. 

Between 2027 and 2029, Antarctica InSync will establish one of the largest observing network ever set up in polar environments to assess the state of this rapidly changing environment and promote sustainable development.

SYNCHRONY will expand and improve Antarctic observing networks, consolidate existing datasets, collect new ones and make them more accessible to the international research community. It will mark a milestone towards a comprehensive polar observing system.

The resulting knowledge will help us to better understand the rapid changes in the region and make them more predictable. 

This action-oriented knowledge will also form an important basis for policy decisions on the protection of the climate and biodiversity in the Southern Ocean and will support international intergovernmental bodies, the European Green Deal and the European Ocean Pact.

The mission of the Earth and Life Institute

At the Earth and Life Institute (UCLouvain), Professor Hugues Goosse and Professor François Massonnet’s teams will be taking part in the project. 

The researchers and their teams will analyze satellite observations, reanalysis data and climate model output to characterize the spatiotemporal variability of Southern Ocean sea ice thickness, on seasonal to interannual time scales. 

They will also develop innovative approaches to guide strategies for optimal temporal and spatial distribution of sea ice measurements in the Southern Ocean. 

They will participate to the analysis of CMIP7 sea ice analyses in the Southern Ocean, and study sea ice thickness co-variability with ocean heat content, freshwater content and interpret recent changes in the coupled ocean-sea ice system.

Partners

The SYNCHRONY project is funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement ID 101295248. More information is given on the project website.

SYNCHRONY consortium

•    Alfred Wegener Institute – Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Head of Partner, Germany
•    United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI-BAS), United Kingdom
•    Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain), Belgium
•    Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), United Kingdom
•    Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI), Norway
•    ETT Spa (ETT), Italy
•    Mercator Ocean (MOI), France
•    Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Scienze del Mare Associazione (CONISMA), Italy
•    European Polar Board (EPB), Sweden
•    Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Belgium
•    Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France 
•    National Oceanography Centre (NOC), United Kingdom 
•    European Science Communication Institute GmbH (ESCI), Germany
•    University of Gothenburg (UGOT), Sweden
•    Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), Germany
•    The University of Edinburgh (UEDIN), United Kingdom
•    Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa
•    University of Southampton (UoS), United Kingdom
•    Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Italy
•    Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI), South Korea
•    University of Otago (UO), New Zealand
•    University of Canterbury (UC), New Zealand
•    Euro-Argo ERIC (EURO-ARGO), France
•    Institut Français de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER), affiliated partner, France
•    Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH), affiliated partner, Germany
•    University of Brest (UBO), affiliated partner, France
•    University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway (UiT), Norway

International cooperation partners

•    Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS)
•    Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS)

Photos: Alfred Wegener Institute