Physics of Oceans and Paleoclimates

Ongoing projects and interests

Coupled climate data assimilation with CESM+DART

Combining models and data to constrain multiple components of the climate system for state estimation and initialized prediction.

Inferring past ocean states from models + data

Fitting numerical models to observations paints a physically consistent picture of the ocean 20,000 years ago.

Studying ocean dynamics using the MITgcm adjoint and ECCO state estimate

We are using the MITgcm adjoint to infer atmospheric changes (like wind stress amplitudes, in red) that change abyssal watermass distributions and North Atlantic subpolar gyre dynamics.

Tools for accelerating tracer simulations

Simulating ocean tracers is computationally expensive. New online extrapolation and preconditioning techniques allow us to estimate equilibria in a fraction of the time.

Uncertainty quantification in paleoclimatology

How can we quantify the limitations of knowledge about past climates? How can we reduce uncertainties through improved use of data and models?

Opportunities @ NCAR

Example image NCAR is an exciting place to study ocean dynamics, earth system predictability, data assimilation, paleoclimates, and more. If you’re interested in visiting as a student either through NCAR or UCAR, applying as a postdoctoral fellow, or want to talk about project ideas, please reach out!

As of August 2020 I’m advertising an NCAR Postdoctoral Fellow position jointly advised by LuAnne Thompson. See here for more details.