The data set comprises temperature, pressure, position and occasionally wave data from nine drifting buoys that were deployed across the Southern Hemisphere. Data were collected from 1979 to 1981. Each buoy carried surface pressure and sea temperature sensors, and seven of the buoys were equipped with drogues in order to aid the study of large scale, near surface ocean currents, and to complement concurrent oceanographic observations made in the area by the research ship RRS Discovery. Two of the buoys were designed with good wave following characteristics and contained accelerometers and simple processors so as to yield good wave information. The buoys were equipped with UHF telemetry transmitters to relay data to the ARGOS system on board the polar orbiting meteorological satellites Tiros-9 and NOAA-6. The buoys were were deployed by the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences Wormley Laboratory UK as part of the First Garp Global Experiment (FGGE) Southern Hemisphere Drifting Buoy Network.