Processed Expendable Bathythermograph (XBT) casts collected during the Marion Island Relief Voyage on the SA Agulhas II Voyage 045, May 2021

Here we present 57 processed Expendable Bathythermograph (XBT) casts collected in the South West Indian Ridge area and along the Crossroads Transect, between 08 May 2021 and 11 May 2021, during the 2021 Marion Relief Voyage on the SA Agulhas II Voyage 045. The South African component of the international South Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation project (SAMOC-SA) aims to characterise the time-mean and time-varying components of the SAMOC in the South Atlantic Ocean and monitor the variability of the main Southern Ocean frontal systems associated with the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), south of Africa. The Crossroads monitoring line, directly under the altimetry track N198, is sampled annually during the Marion Relief voyages, using a combination of CTD stations and XBT casts, where the XBT casts are done, at set intervals, between CTD stations to complement the CTD data. The 2021 Marion Relief Voyage 045 offered the 9th opportunity to conduct multi-disciplinary, ship-based oceanographic research on board the SA Agulhas II en-route to, from, and around, the sub-Antarctic Prince Edward Islands.