Five multidisciplinary cruises in the Southern Ocean for a better understanding of the oceanographic processes were undertaken.

The focus areas of study during these expeditions were Oceanography and Hydrography (during the 2009 Expedition), biogeochemistry and paleo-climatology (2010) and plankton dynamics (2011). Some of the salient results of the studies carried out during these expeditions are as below:

• An anomalous warming trend observed in the Subtropical Front in 2011.
• Spatial and temporal variations in the northern and southern branches of the Polar Front
• Observed variations in chlorophyll distribution on account of different types of food web operating at different levels within the PF
• High grazing pressure by copepods and salps on phytoplankton community responsible for lowered chlorophyll a conc.
• Nutrients especially nitrate and silicates show increasing trend towards southern latitude.
• Secondary production pattern and diversity show marked difference in different fronts and zones
• Air sea fluxes of sensible and latent heat estimated from the Indian sector of southern ocean for the first time using in-situ observations.

Strong surface winds blowing over southern latitudes facilitate increased air-sea transfer of fluxes in the study area.