Secondly, there are those who worked at or with the WOCE Hydrographic Programme Offices, both Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (under the direction of Dr. Terrence Joyce) and later at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (under the direction of Dr. James Swift). They obtained the data from the originating principal investigators, ensured that they were in a common format and then examined the final data to ensure that the high standards established for the programme were maintained throughout the many cruises. The process of compiling these atlases provided an additional level of quality control and incentive for timely acquisition and merging of the data. Those who worked at the WHP Special Analysis Centre (WHP-SAC) in Hamburg, Germany, served to collate the WHP data set in association with the Hydrographic Programme Office.
Thirdly, an informal WOCE Atlas Committee consisting of members of the WOCE International Project Office (WOCE IPO), the WOCE’ÄàScientific Steering Group, the WOCE’ÄàData Products Committee and the atlas Principal Investigators was set up to provide guidance and support.
The Southern Ocean Atlas compilation was funded by NSF Ocean Sciences division grant 9811481 to Orsi and Whitworth. Publication was generously supported by BP. Thanks must go to Frank Sronce and Tao Yu for their assistance with programming, data acquisition and data merging, and especially to Mithali Shetty and Don Johnson for their years of effort in producing and hand-editing the final figures. Mithali Shetty received some support to do this from the Office of Naval Research. The atlas editors are also grateful to Valery Detemmerman of the WCRP Joint Planning Staff in Geneva for her help with various logistical issues and Jean Haynes for administrative support in the WOCE IPO.
Finally we are grateful to the WCRP and its sponsors, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).