Senior Research Scientist
Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies
RF1 263
(850) 644-6931 phone
(850) 644-4841 fax
My research interest falls in the broad area of using numerical models to understand the large-scale ocean circulation, such as the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) and the lateral gyres of the subpolar/subtropical North Atlantic. These circulations play a fundamental role in Earth’s climate by transporting a large amount of heat, freshwater (or salinity anomaly), and substances such as CO2 through ocean basins while mixing internally and interacting with the atmosphere. The main focus of my research involves a) the spatial structure of different AMOC branches or components and the associated evolution of water properties, i.e., water mass transformation, and b) the temporal variability of the circulation from intra-seasonal to multi-decadal timescales and the driving mechanisms.
Although I consider myself an ocean modeler, I have always been enthusiastic in observational results and particularly in detailed model-data comparisons to know if the modeled key circulation features are consistent with the observations. There are generally three types of simulations that I either contribute myself or use when made available by other researchers:
- Basin-scale Atlantic simulations using the hybrid coordinate ocean model (HYCOM).
- Global ocean-sea ice simulations with the latest atmospheric forcing products, and
- Fully-coupled climate simulations under the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP).