Ocean fine-scale dynamics

Air-sea interactions

Antarctic sea-ice processes

Southern Ocean Fine-Scale Interactions with the Atmosphere (SOFIA)

The SOFIA project explores two main questions: how powerful storms drive the exchange of heat between air and sea, and how swirling ocean fronts, eddies, and narrow filaments transport that heat into the ocean interior.

To answer these questions, we combine cutting-edge coupled ocean-atmosphere simulations with new in-situ observations collected by autonomous robotic platforms in one of the most remote parts of the planet. We will also take advantage of ESA’s Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite to map vertical ocean motion across the entire Southern Ocean.

Together, these efforts will build a clearer and more predictive understanding of how the ocean regulates Earth’s climate — knowledge that’s essential for improving future climate projections.

Storm impacts on air-sea heat and CO2 exchange uncertainty

In my VR project, our goal is to explore how storms affect the exchange of heat and carbon between the ocean and the atmosphere in the harsh and rapidly changing environment of the Southern Ocean. We want to understand how storms interact with small-scale ocean motions and sea ice to shape these exchanges and, in the process, improve the formulas used to describe them in climate models.

Our goal is to make climate projections more accurate by combining existing observations with new, cutting-edge measurements. Using data from the only year-round Southern Ocean Flux mooring, I’ll study how storms drive changes in ocean heat and carbon uptake from one season to the next.

In this project, we will co-lead the Pulse of the Weddell Sea Expedition, deploying autonomous instruments such as Wave Gliders, Sailbuoys, and ocean-profiling gliders to measure how the ocean and atmosphere interact in icy regions. Working closely with international collaborators, these efforts will give us a rare, detailed view of ocean conditions during extreme weather events.

WHIRLS: The impacts of ocean fine-scale whirls on climate and ecosystems

PI's: Sebastiaan Swart (GU), Arne Biastoch (GEOMAR), Sabrina Speich (Ecole Normale Supérieure of Paris), Sarah Fawcett (University of Cape Town)
Call: European Research Council Synergy Grant, 2025-2030
Role: Research Scientist

WHIRLS takes place in an area called the Cape Basin, placed within the Agulhas Current System. This region has the strongest and most energetic currents in the world's ocean and play a key role in the global ocean circulation, and so strongly influences global climate. In particular, these currents 'leak' heat and salt from the Indian to the Atlantic Ocean, balancing the overturning circulation of the whole Atlantic and influencing the weather and climate we experience. I will work with Sebastiaan Swart and his research team together with biogeochemists, oceanographers, and climate modellers from France, Germany, and South Africa.