BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Memento EPFL//
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:The turbulent ocean - the role of eddies for ocean biogeochemistry
DTSTART:20141202T161500
DTEND:20141202T171500
DTSTAMP:20260921T140759Z
UID:0814fe4ef0a77adf751c974c4956c13f3e27c4a27162cf940015bf86
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr Nicolas Gruber\, Environmental Physics\, ETH Zürich\nAbstr
 act:\nThe ocean is a highly turbulent medium - with mesoscale eddies domin
 ating the variability spectrum. These mesoscale eddies are the oceanic ana
 logue of high and low pressure systems in the atmosphere\, except that the
 ir horizontal scales are only tens to a hundred kilometres. Despite their 
 ubiquity\, the role of these eddies for ocean circulation and particularly
  for ocean biogeochemistry is neither well observed nor well understood\, 
 and a source of many surprising findings. In my talk\, I will discuss two 
 oceanic realms\, where eddies might play a particularly important role\, i
 .e.\, Eastern Boundary Upwelling Systems\, such as the California Current 
 System\, and the Southern Ocean. I will demonstrate on the basis of observ
 ations and modeling studies that mesoscale eddies are not just adding "noi
 se" to these systems\, but also modify their mean state.  In the Californ
 ia Current System\, for example\, eddies are the dominant pathway for the 
 transport of material properties from the near coastal system into the ope
 n ocean\, thereby depleting the near-coastal reservoir of the nutrients\, 
 which leads to a substantially lower than expected biological production i
 n this system. In the Southern Ocean\, a similar process is at work\, play
 ing a critical role in how this system is responding to changes in wind-in
 duced upwelling.  In addition\, I will show how such mesoscale eddies mod
 ify the atmospheric boundary layer\, causing changes in winds and rainfall
 . Since oceanic mesoscale eddies are typically not resolved by today's cli
 mate models\, our insights are a crucial first step to develop parameteriz
 ations to represent their integrative effect\, ultimately leading to bette
 r predictions of how Earth's climate system will respond to future perturb
 ations and those of the past.Short biography:\nNicolas Gruber (1968) has a
  Diploma in environmental sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Tec
 hnology (ETH) Zurich and a Ph.D. from the University of Bern (1997). Subse
 quently he was as Visiting Research Scientist with the AOS program at the 
 University of Princeton for three years. From 2000-2005 he worked as an As
 sistant Professor at the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at
  the University of California\, Los Angeles\, where he received tenure in 
 2005. In 2006 he returned to Switzerland to become Professor for Environme
 ntal Physics at ETH Zurich. His main research interest are the global biog
 eochemical cycles of carbon and other biologically essential elements and 
 their interaction with the climate system. He combines the analysis of obs
 ervations with modeling studies to better quantify\, for example\, the fat
 e of the anthropogenic CO2 emissions in the Earth system\, particularly th
 e uptake by the ocean and land biosphere.
LOCATION:GR A3 31 http://plan.epfl.ch/?room=GR%20A3%2031
STATUS:CONFIRMED
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR