Syllabus: The role of the ocean in climate variations

Interests:
- Theory and modeling of large-scale ocean circulation, stability and variability, and its interactions with the atmosphere and the ice,
- Analysis of ocean variability in the North Atlantic, from hydrographic, historical and altimetry data,
- The thermohaline circulation (the ocean circulation forced by surface fluxes of heat and freshwater),
- the role of the ocean in our climate and its variations,
- the variability of the ocean circulation on decadal and longer timescales,
- climate dynamics,
- the influence of wind (vs. thermal and freshwater flux) and mesoscale eddies (vs. the "mean" circulation) in the global ocean circulation.

As a contribution to climate dynamics understanding, I analyze the variability of the ocean circulation on interannual to interdecadal timescales, using all available tools and data: conceptual and numerical models, as well as in-situ and remote observations. Thermohaline and wind-driven ocean circulation models are able to generate spontaneous oscillations under perfectly constant forcing: I try to understand why, what sets the period, and how it relates to the observed variability in the North Atlantic.

I am now involved in an observational program in the North Atlantic, OVIDE, to monitor the meridional overturning cell and its potential changes under ungoing global warming. Side topics are high-resolution eddy-resolving ocean simulations and coupling with a hierarchy of atmospheric models (energy balance, quasigeostrophic, axisymmetric and general circulation models).

Contreras, J. G., 2002: The Intrinsic Value of Basic Research. Physics Today, October 2002.
Paydarfar, D., and W. J., Schwartz, 2001: An Algorithm for Discovery. Science, 232, 13 (6 april 2001). comments

updated 12jan2003