Sabrina SPEICH

Research

Research project in focus:

WHIRLS






WHIRLS is an ERC Synergy project about small-scale ocean processes having large-scale impacts. Heat and carbon are the currencies of regional and global climate, constantly exchanged between the ocean and the atmosphere. This exchange is strongly influenced by fine-scales ocean eddies—whirls—that flux heat and carbon towards, or away from, the air-sea interface. The overarching goal of WHIRLS is to improve our understanding and modelling of the ocean’s fine-scale dynamics and how they steer ocean-atmosphere interactions and upper-ocean biogeochemistry and biology.

ObsSea4Clim

ObsSea4Clim  is a Horizon Europe project funded under the call

"Closing the research gaps on Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) in support of global assessments" / TOPIC ID: HORIZON-CL6-2023-CLIMATE-01-8 with the following goal: Improving the monitoring, understanding, reporting (Essential Variables) and projections of essential physical oceanic processes related to climate and changes over time, and production of related Essential Ocean Variables and indicators, at regional or sea basin scale (sea state, ocean surface stress, sea ice, ocean surface heat fluxes, sea surface and subsurface salinity, sea surface height, sea surface and subsurface temperature, ocean circulation and surface and subsurface currents, ocean layering and density gradient, upwelling) (including GHG fluxes) (TRL 7-8).

Ocean : Ice





OCEAN:ICE will assess the impacts of key Antarctic Ice Sheet and Southern Ocean processes on Planet Earth, via their influence on sea level rise, deep water formation, ocean circulation and climate. An innovative and ambitious combination of observations and numerical models, including coupled ice sheet-climate model development, will be used to improve predictions of how changes in the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets impact global climate. It will make new circumpolar and Atlantic observations in observational gaps. It will assimilate these and existing data into improved ice sheet boundary conditions and forcing, producing new estimates of ice sheet melt and impacts on ocean circulation, including the Atlantic Meridional Overturning circulation. It will develop, calibrate and assess models used to predict the future evolution of the giant ice sheets. It will reduce the deep uncertainty in the impact of their melt on societally relevant environmental changes on decadal to multi centennial time scales. It will assess the potential for passing ice sheet 'tipping points' and their consequences for ocean circulation and climate. For more information visit the following web page:

https://ocean-ice.eu

TempleX



This project proposes to apply the Templex Topological approach to atmosphere, ocean, and hydrology datasets, provided by observations or by numerical simulations. In these three fields, we target advances in our knowledge and in the performance of existing models, allowing us to justify and qualify their use. Theoretical advances in the characterization of extreme events are also expected. Complementary tools for raw data processing, as well as for the topological characterization of extreme events and tipping points, will be elaborated and integrated in a toolkit at the service of Earth System and Environmental Science communities. A Templex is defined as a cell complex endowed with a directed graph (digraph) that conveys the information of the flow direction of the system in terms of allowed or forbidden connections between the cells of the complex approximating the system’s branched manifold

Sabrina SPEICH

EUREC4A-OA

Assessing the interaction and impact of the lower atmosphere and upper ocean at the at the oceanic mesoscale and submesoscale and their impact on both the upper ocean and lower atmosphere in the Tropical Western North Atlantic. The field experiment will take place on Jan-Feb 2020. For more information visit the following web page:

http://eurec4a-oa.eu

http://www.jpi-climate.eu/joint-activities/joint-calls/CPILoud/EUREC4A-OA

http://www.lmd.ens.fr/speich/EUREC4A_OA.html

http://eurec4a.eu

AtlantOS

AtlantOS is a BG 8 (Developing in-situ Atlantic Ocean Observations for a better management and sustainable exploitation of the maritime resources) research and innovation project that proposes the integration of ocean observing activities across all disciplines for the Atlantic, considering European as well as non-European partners. For more information visit the following web site:

https://www.atlantos-h2020.eu

Optimising and Enhancing the Integrated Atlantic Ocean Observing Systems

SAMOC

Understanding the role of the South Atlantic Ocean in the MOC system and the establishment of an observing system to capture key components of the circulation: this initiative is known as South Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or SAMOC. For more information visit the following web page:

http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/SAMOC_international/

TRIATLAS

To assess the status of the South and Tropical Atlantic marine ecosystem and develop a framework for predicting its future changes, from months to decades, by combining ecosystem observations, climate-based ecosystem prediction and information on future socio-economic and ecosystem service changes, and thus to contribute to the sustainable management of human activities in the Atlantic Ocean as a whole. For more information visit the following web page:

https://triatlas.w.uib.no

EuroSea

Although the Ocean is a fundamental part of the global system providing a wealth of resources, there are fundamental gaps in ocean observing and forecasting systems, limiting our capacity in Europe to sustainably manage the ocean and its resources. Ocean observing is “big science” and cannot be solved by individual nations; it is necessary to ensure high-level integration for coordinated observations of the ocean that can be sustained in the long term. EuroSea brings together key European actors of ocean observation and forecasting with key end users of ocean observations, responding to the Future of the Seas and Oceans Flagship Initiative. For more information visit the following web page:

https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/225251/factsheet/en

TOEddies

Improving our understanding the role of ocean mesoscale eddies in the global ocean circulation, in the transport of properties and air-sea interactions. For more information click here

Future Events:

The 55th Liège Colloquium on « Ocean extremes »

The 55th International Liège Colloquium on Ocean Dynamics (https://www.ocean-colloquium.uliege.be), will be devoted to "Ocean Extremes". The event will take place from 27 to 31 May 2024 and will gather worldwide experts on this topic. The Liège Colloquium is renowned internationally and we have been organizing it for 55 years now, each year being devoted to a topic of interest in the ocean sciences. 

Ocean Extremes have become increasingly prevalent in our changing world. These events can have profound consequences for marine ecosystems, coastal communities, and global economies. This is the reason we have decided to devote the 2024 edition of the Liège Colloquium to the topic ocean extremes. We believe it will attract a lot of interest among the community.

Past Events:

The 2nd Global Climate Observations Conference

The second GCOS Climate Observation Conference, held on 17-19 October 2022 in Darmstadt, Germany, has focussed on activities and solutions that help to achieve a fully implemented, sustainable, and fit for purpose global observing system for climate. The Conference also provided the occasion to celebrate GCOS 30th Anniversary and take stock of the progress achieved by the global observing community in the last three decades. For more information visit the following web site: https://www.eventsforce.net/eumetsat/frontend/reg/thome.csp?pageID=14409&eventID=34&traceRedir=2

OceanObs’19 Conference

The OceanObs’19 conference is a community-driven conference that brings people from all over the planet together to communicate the decadal progress of ocean observing networks and to chart innovative solutions to society’s growing needs for ocean information in the coming decade. For more information visit the following web site: http://www.oceanobs19.net

CliMathParis2019

The Institut Henri Poincaré trimester “The Mathematics of Climate and the Environnement” aims to explore the Climate System and the developments in mathematics that seem most promising in advancing the climate and environmental sciences. For more information visit the following web site:

http://www.geosciences.ens.fr/CliMathParis2019/

©Thomas BLANKE 2018