Atmosphere Ocean Science Colloquium

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Characterizing Ocean Fine-Scale Dynamics Across Space and Time Scales: Challenges and Opportunities

Speaker: Aurelien Ponte, Ifremer, Brest

Location: Warren Weaver Hall 1302

Date: Wednesday, February 25, 2026, 3:30 p.m.

Synopsis:

Ocean variability at horizontal scales below a few hundred kilometers and at time scales shorter than months arises from a superposition of wave-like motions forced by winds and tides, as well as slower, turbulence-like motions forming complex webs of eddies, fronts, and filaments. These processes are believed to play a key role in the transport and redistribution of climate-relevant variables such as heat and carbon, hence influencing the long-term evolution of the ocean.

While high-resolution numerical simulations are increasingly able to represent and investigate these dynamics, their observational characterization remains a major challenge. Here, we focus on the characterization of ocean variability energy as a function of both spatial and temporal scales. Motivated by their inherent ability to simultaneously sample flow variability in space and time, we specifically investigate the potential of surface drifters using Gaussian Process modeling and Bayesian inference. Finally, we present novel satellite missions and observational concepts that may substantially improve our ability to capture ocean fine-scale dynamics and provide critical ground truth for validating numerical predictions.