The International Bathymetric Chart of the Southern Ocean – A new Map of Antarctica
The International Bathymetric Chart of the Southern Ocean (IBCSO) is an expert group of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) since the XXVIII SCAR Conference held on 30th July 2004 in Bremen Germany and a regional Mapping project of the General Bathymetric Chart of the Ocean (GEBCO) operated under the joint auspices of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) (of UNESCO) and the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO). The objective of IBCSO was to produce a first seamless bathymetric grid for the area south of latitude 60° S covering the area of the Antarctic Treaty. The IBCSO is going to be a benefit for scientific purposes. These include (a) interpretation of seabed geology, (b) the building of habitat models and maps, and (c) mapping and tracing of deep ocean current pathways. In addition the IBCSO is going to serve as database for the development of new Electronic Nautical Charts (ENC) in the Southern Ocean to improve the safety of navigation in Antarctic waters. As the first version of the IBCSO grid is close to be released, so is the corresponding map. It is proposed to present the latest draft version, or even the final version, of the new IBCSO map. Besides the map itself, the process to achieve the first version of the IBCSO grid and map is going to be presented. This includes a description of the datasets used to create the map and a rough explanation of the working steps to generate the first grid version of the IBCSO.