The first telecon of the CLIVAR/CliC/SCAR Southern Ocean Region Panel in 2021 took place on 22nd March, soon after the 26^th session of the CLIVAR Scientific Steering Group.

With Elisabeth becoming the new co-chair and the joining of the new member, both the expertise and the geographic distribution of the membership are diverse now. During the meeting, all the participants briefly introduced themselves for a better understanding with each other and exchanged information and ideas on the current and future SORP activities. The major outcomes of this telecon are as follows.

• A chalk talk emphasizing the importance of the Southern Ocean as a basin where the ocean exhales was presented by Elisabeth Sikes.
• Torge conveyed the main information from the CLIVAR SSG meeting. He introduced the new WCRP structure and transition, and how SORP activities can map onto the WCRP Lighthouse Activities (LHA). Based on this, the recommendation from the CLIVAR SSG, and the expertise of the panel, SORP will mainly focus on three key science topics.
• SORP will continue to maintain and develop the connection with other panels/projects, including CliC, SCAR, WCRP LHA, SOOS, YOPP-SH, ASPeCt, UN decade of ocean science, OOPC, etc.
• The panel exchanged the status of the workshops relevant to SORP, and made the plan for the next SORP business meeting.

The next telecon will be on 8^th April.