To that end, an NSF - funded $ 21 million
initiative called Southern
Ocean Carbon and Climate
Observations and Modeling (SOCCOM) run by Princeton University, and including Climate Central, MBARI, Scripps, University of Washington, University of Arizona and others, was launched in 2014 with the goal of deploying over a six - year period a fleet of autonomous, robotic floats, capable of observing the Southern
Ocean (for the first time) year - round and across the entire expanse.
Secretary of Commerce Don Evans also announced a $ 103 million two - year federal
initiative to accelerate the deployment of new global
observation technologies, focused on
oceans and atmospheric aerosols and carbon.