My research is mainly aimed at the high latitude oceans and, in particular, at their role in climate and climate variability. Through the conversion of light waters into intermediate and dense waters, which fill the bulk of the world ocean, the high latitudes contribute to driving the oceans' circulation and their poleward heat transport. Variations in the formation processes have been linked to both past and modern climate variability as well as to model predictions of future climate. My research has ranged from investigating the details of the convective process itself, to the connection between the amount of dense water formed, the poleward heat transport and the sinking (or overturning) that is often associated with these regions. I have primarily focused on the dense waters formed in the North Atlantic's Labrador Sea and Nordic Seas and have integrated both data analysis, simpled models as well as numerical simulations. Currently, I am collaborating with the Bergen Group to investigate the formation processes that occur in the Nordic Seas. Also, I am investigating the role of anticyclones in the convective process which is strongly supported by observations but has been overlooked in the modeling and theory.
The high latitudes are also where the bulk of the freshwater enters the oceans via riverine input, glacial melt, precipitation and sea-ice formation and melt.
Changes in the freshwater have a potential to induce circulation changes by inhibiting vertical mixing with the deeper layers, due to the high stability of a freshwater layer at the surface of the ocean. As part of an international effort aimed at mapping and monitoring freshwater exchange between the Arctic and Sub-arctic regions, I have been measuring the freshwater into the Labrador Sea through Hudson Strait. Hudson Strait is also the main opening for the Hudson Bay System: a large, inland Arctic sea whose ecosystem and human settlements have been indicated as extremely vulnerable to climate change.
Finally, I am a conducting field work in the subtropical Atlantic, as a part of the CLIVAR project CLIMODE. This focuses on the region of extreme heat exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere and the associated formation and subduction of the Atlantic subtropical mode water.
Both in the past, and at present, my research has involved a combination of theory, modeling (one-dimensional, non-hydrostatic, regional general circulation models), data collection and historical data analysis.
See the Projects section for a more in depth discussion of the recent and current
projects.
