wHat: nearly 500 scientists and researchers from around the world gathered to focus on and discuss the weather, climate, and ocean processes of the ocean-dominated Southern hemisphere. wHen: 9–13 February 2009 wHere: melbourne, Victoria, australia ince 1983, and approximately every three years since, the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Committee on Meteorology and Oceanography of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) has planned and staged an international conference focusing on the unique aspects of atmospheric and oceanic science in the SH. Scientific inquiry in SH meteorology and oceanography has expanded considerably over the past 50 yr, beginning with the International Geophysical Year of 1957/58 and continuing into the International Polar Year of 2007/08. A number of factors have driven this progress: 1) increasing numbers of observations of the SH, particularly in the ocean (e.g., Argo floats, moored arrays in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, and Southern Ocean monitoring); 2) the importance of the generally data-sparse SH to global climate and meteorological knowledge has been underscored by recent increases in oceanobserving systems coupled with recent advances in ocean modeling; 3) the increased availability of remotely observed data by satellite; and 4) operational implementation of improved numerical weather prediction models that has resulted in better forecasts in both hemispheres. The opportunities provided by these advances have both increased understanding and appreciation of the role of the SH and elevated the importance of the International Conference on SH Meteorology and Oceanography (ICSHMO). The ninth in the conference series (9ICSHMO), the culmination of more than two years of planning and coordination, was a joint venture by the AMS and the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (AMOS). On many levels, the conference was a great success, despite the travel difficulties and expense of getting to Australia (coupled with the global financial crisis), a record-breaking heat wave, and bushfires nearby. There were 471 registered attendees from 27 countries, which was the second greatest attendance ever for an ICSHMO conference. Attracting both students and scientists from developing countries has always been a priority for AFFILIATIONS: diamond—noaa/national climatic data center, Silver Spring, maryland; Plummer—australian Bureau of meteorology, melbourne, Victoria, australia; walsH—university of melbourne, melbourne, Victoria, australia CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: howard diamond, noaa/ national climatic data center, 1100 Wayne avenue, Suite 1202, Silver Spring, md 20910 e-mail: howard.diamond@noaa.gov