For the open session, we welcome contributions on all aspects of ocean circulation from observations, models and theory, from regional to global scales, from air-sea exchanges to abyssal mixing. This year our session will include the Fridtjof Nansen medal award lecture, by Anne-Marie Treguier. We particularly encourage studies on the interannual to decadal variability and the internal and externally forced physical processes in the ocean. Because accurate estimation of energy and mass fluxes is critical for the closure of the ocean energy budget and the ocean's impact on the atmosphere, this session also welcomes works dealing with processes at the ocean's boundaries. This includes studies focusing on the fundamentals of air-sea flux physics, on the ocean's interaction with the cryosphere, as well as on the physical processes occurring at topographic boundaries. As usual the OS1.1 session also welcomes submissions that do not fit to any of the other special sessions; this includes the oceanography of the Pacific Ocean.