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• SOCCOM has deployed >260 BGC-Argo floats with O 2 , NO 3 , pH and bio-optical sensors. • SOCCOM floats operate throughout the Southern Ocean including the seasonal ice zone. • All SOCCOM float data is freely available in real-time. • A Biogeochemical Southern Ocean State Estimate (BSOSE) assimilates float data. • Float data and BSOSE are used with coupled models to better understand climate. The Southern Ocean serves as the primary gateway through which the intermediate, deep, and bottom waters of the ocean interact with the surface ocean (and thus the atmosphere), and it has a profound influence on the oceanic uptake of anthropogenic carbon and heat as well as nutrient resupply from the abyss to the surface. Yet it has been the least observed and understood region of the world ocean. The Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling (SOCCOM) project was implemented in 2014 with a goal to help remedy this deficit in observations and understanding. The SOCCOM project is based on two major advances that have the potential to transform understanding of the Southern Ocean. The first is the development of new biogeochemical sensors mounted on autonomous profiling floats that allow sampling of ocean biogeochemistry in 3-dimensional space. Floats may detect processes with a temporal resolution that ranges from hours to years. The second is that the climate modeling community finally has the computational resources and physical understanding to develop fully coupled climate models that can represent crucial, mesoscale processes in the Southern Ocean, as well as corresponding models that assimilate observations to produce a state estimate. The observational component, based on deployment of profiling floats with oxygen, nitrate, pH and bio-optical sensors, is generating vast amounts of new biogeochemical data that provide a year-round view of the Southern Ocean from the surface to 2000 m. The modeling effort is applying these observations and enhancing our understanding of the current ocean, and reducing uncertainty in projections of future carbon and nutrient cycles and climate. After nine years of operation, including a project renewal in the sixth year, the SOCCOM project has deployed more than 260 profiling floats. These floats have collected over 27,000 vertical profiles throughout the Southern Ocean. A data-assimilating biogeochemical state estimate model has been implemented. Here, the design of the SOCCOM project is reviewed and the scientific results that have been obtained are described. The project's capability to help meet the observing system priorities outlined for a notional UN Decade for Ocean Sciences Southern Ocean observing system is assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemical sensor development has been a focus for the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) from its inception. Progress in chemical analyzers benefited from technological advances in many fields. MBARI's development of a low power, reagent-free, in situ ultraviolet spectrophotometer (ISUS) for measuring dissolved nitrate has been transformative. These ultraviolet optical nitrate sensors have been deployed on remotely operated vehicles, autonomous underwater vehicles, benthic flux chambers, profiling floats, and moorings. This paper focuses on a 15+ year time series of nitrate observations on MBARI's M1 mooring in Monterey Bay, California. The resulting data set captures seasonal and interannual variability from El Niño and La Niña, and water mass anomalies on the eastern boundary of the Pacific Ocean. The high temporal resolution (hourly) nitrate measurements additionally quantify diel cycles of nitrate uptake as a proxy for new production. The calculated f-ratio varies seasonally with relatively higher values during the lower productivity winter season. The physical supply and uptake of nitrate are dominated by upwelling in this coastal environment. An expanding number of ultraviolet optical nitrate sensor deployments on moorings and autonomous platforms such as profiling floats will provide everbroadening coverage of the world ocean, resulting in enhanced spatial and temporal resolution of nitrate measurements and, ultimately, improved insight into the dynamics of nitrogen cycling and phytoplankton ecology throughout a changing global ocean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]