Abstract-
Lagrangian floats deployed during the 1990s have proved to be a valuable
tool for studying the remote and inhospitable Southern Ocean. These
have provided some 15,000 individual temperature and velocity
measurements in the region. Float temperatures, in comparison with
older in situ observations, show that the region has warmed rapidly over
the past 50 years, with subsurface temperatures increasing by nearly 0.2
degrees C. Float velocities allow us to examine the eddy fluxes that
play an essential role in the dynamics of the region. Measurements of
these eddy fluxes are important for understanding how the ocean mixes,
and how to represent ocean mixing processes in numerical ocean models.
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