Project participants

Key contacts for the project are listed below:

Dr Jozef Skakala

Dr Jozef Skakala

Ecosystem Modeller at Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML)

Expertise

Jozef’s background (at all levels, from an undergraduate to PhD) is in theoretical physics, with PhD in the area of General Theory of Relativity (Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, 2011). Jozef’s research typically combines his mathematical background with a desire to understand complex ecosystem functioning. Most of Jozef’s more recent work was focused on biogeochemical data assimilation on the North-West European Shelf, with implications for operational forecasting and ``smart’’ observing systems.

Role in project
Jozef is the Coordinator of the SEAMLESS project as well as Leader of WP6.

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Dr Stefano Ciavatta

Dr Stefano Ciavatta

Marine System Scientist/Modeller at Mercator Ocean International

Expertise
Stefano’s main areas of expertise are marine ecosystem modelling and assimilation of biogeochemical data, from remotely sensed ocean colour products to in situ continuous data. He has tracked expertise in: sensitivity/uncertainty analysis of environmental models, time series analysis, spatial analysis of water quality monitoring data and pollutant bioaccumulation modelling.
Stefano is co-chair of the Marine Ecosystem Analysis and Prediction Task Team of OceanPredict, which is an international organization promoting the development and exploitation of operational oceanography. Stefano is associated editor of the journal Biogeosciences.
 
Role in project

Stefano was the former Coordinator of the project and is currently a member of the SEAMLESS Advisory Board. 

Eva Álvarez

Eva Álvarez

PostDoc at Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale - OGS

ealvarez@NOSPAMinogs.it

Expertise

I am a biologist using ocean models to investigate the role of phytoplankton in the pelagic ecosystem. I parameterize photo-physiological processes relevant to simulate the magnitude and seasonality of primary production. Lately, I have been working with spectrally-resolved models, investigating alternative ways of representing optical variability of the phytoplankton community in ocean models.

Role in project

In SEAMLESS I will be involved in WP6 improving phytoplankton process description (e.g. photoacclimation) and parameter values (e.g. absorption and scattering coefficients) that influence ecosystem primary production.

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Gianpiero Cossarini

Gianpiero Cossarini

Marine ecosystem modeller/scientist at Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale - OGS

gcossarini@NOSPAMinogs.it

Expertise

PhD in environmental sciences (2004), researcher at OGS since 2006. Research activities include investigation of the biogeochemical cycles, the carbonate system and acidification of the Mediterranean Sea; development of data assimilation, uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of coupled physical-biogeochemical models; analysis of the effects of climatic changes on marine ecosystems. Within the CMEMS service, he is responsible of the biogeochemical component of the Mediterranean Monitoring and Forecast Centre (Med-MFC).

Role in project

I will lead the Work Package 5 on “Coupled space-in situ data assimilation”, participate in OGS activities of the other WPs and facilitate the integration of SEAMLESS outcomes into the CMEMS Mediterranean biogeochemical system.

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Jess Heard

Jess Heard

Project Manager at Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML)

jessh@NOSPAMpml.ac.uk

Expertise
Jessica has over 10 years experience in managing large multi partner EU project and leading on communication and stakeholder engagement activities. 
 
Role in project
Project Manager and WP7 Leader: Dissemination, Exploitation and Communication.

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Laurent Bertino

Laurent Bertino

Research Leader at Stiftelsen Nansensenteret for Miljö og Fjernmåling (NERSC)

Laurent.Bertino@NOSPAMnersc.no

Expertise

Ensemble-based Data Assimilation and ocean modelling, specifically for the Arctic

Role in project

I will lead the Work Package 4 on “Coupled physical-biogeochemical data assimilation” and contribute to the further integration of SEAMLESS with CMEMS.

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Karsten Bolding

Researcher at Bolding & Bruggeman ApS (BB)

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Jean-Michel Brankart

Research engineer at Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement - Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)

Jean-Michel.Brankart@NOSPAMuniv-grenoble-alpes.fr

Expertise

Jean-Michel Brankart is a Research Engineer at CNRS. He has about 20 years experience in the development and application of ocean data assimilation, with various interests including ensemble simulations, quantification of modelling uncertainties, parameterization observation errors, nonlinear inverse approaches.

Role in project

Jean-Michel Brankart will provide support to the development of a non-deterministic version of the NEMO-PISCES coupled model, including explicit simulation of model uncertainties, and to the setup of the inverse approach, involving non-Gaussian statistics and possibly nonlinear data constraints.

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Paolo Lazzari

Paolo Lazzari

Researcher at Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale - OGS

plazzari@NOSPAMinogs.it

Expertise

Biogeochemistry

Role in project

I will contribute to the coupling of the BFM model with FABM in the 1D implementation and to the parameter estimation using PDAF.

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Pierre Brasseur

Pierre Brasseur

Senior scientist in oceanography at Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement - Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)

Pierre.Brasseur@NOSPAMuniv-grenoble-alpes.fr

Expertise

Pierre Brasseur is CNRS senior scientist in oceanography. His main activities cover the numerical modelling of open ocean circulation, the assimilation of data in numerical models and the coupling between physical, biogeochemical and ecosystem models. His area of expertise also covers satellite missions and observing systems of the Earth from space. He chaired the Mercator Ocean scientific council from 2006 to 2013 and coordinated the R&D program within the EU-funded FP7 MyOcean projects. He has been Director of IGE since 2017. He is member of the Scientific Program Committee at CNES since 2014.

Role in project

Pierre Brasseur will coordinate the UGA-IGE contribution to SEAMLESS and lead WP3 activities. He will contribute to the development of a new stochastic version of the NEMO-PISCES coupled model and explore new ensemble approaches to be tested in the global ocean configuration at ¼ operated by Mercator-Ocean. He will also co-design a new integrated system to estimate key ecosystem indicators (such as primary production and phenology) and their uncertainties using satellite ocean colour data. He will ensure optimal interactions with the team in charge of biogeochemical system developments at Mercator Ocean International.

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Dr Jorn Bruggeman

Dr Jorn Bruggeman

Researcher at Bolding & Bruggeman ApS (BB)

Dr Lars Nerger

Dr Lars Nerger

Leader of Data Assimilation Team at Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung (AWI)

Lars.Nerger@NOSPAMawi.de

Expertise
Lars Nerger is a senior research scientist at AWI. He performs research
on ensemble-based data assimilation algorithms for nonlinear systems and
applies these to ocean physics and biogeochemistry and to coupled models
in the Earth system. He leads the development of PDAF (Parallel Data
Assimilation Framework), the open-source software for ensemble data
assimilation.
Role in project
Lars Nerger will lead work package 2 on the "SEAMLESS prototype".
Further he will coordinate the implementation activities into PDAF (e.g.
ensemble variational schemes, ensemble generation methods) and ensure
that these will be distributed as open source software.

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Mikhail Popov

Mikhail Popov

Research engineer at Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement - Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)

mikhail.popov@NOSPAMuniv-grenoble-alpes.fr

Expertise

Mikhail Popov is a doctor in numerical methods and applied mathematics. His expertise covers high performance computing, finite elements and finite volumes methods, unsteady and hyperbolic problems, numerical models for multi-physical systems, numerical analysis. He is a developer of codes for the simulation of complex physical processes, including the fluid dynamics. He is an author of original numerical methods and approaches.

Role in project

Research engineer in numerical simulations in oceanography. Contribution to the development of a new probabilistic version of the NEMO-PISCES code. Ensemble simulations of biogeochemistry in the global ocean. Design and testing the different stochastic parameterization schemes to represent unresolved or poorly resolved ocean processes in models. Statistics generation for data analysis in connection with satellite observations of ocean color.

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Annette Samuelsen

Annette Samuelsen

Research Leader/Senior Researcher at Stiftelsen Nansensenteret for Miljö og Fjernmåling (NERSC)

annette.samuelsen@NOSPAMnersc.no

Expertise

I am an oceanographer focusing my research on physical-biological interactions in the ocean. I work with application and development of physical-biological models.  In recent years I have worked with developing operational oceanography applications for couple physical-biological models, focusing on the model system HYCOM-ECOMSO, which is now used as part of the CMEMS forecast for the Arctic. 

Role in project

In SEAMLESS I will primarily be involved in the design and analysis of the data assimilation work done with ECOMSO in the 1D (GOTM) and 3D (HYCOM) framework.

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Anna Teruzzi

Anna Teruzzi

Technologist at Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS)

Expertise

Biogeochemical data assimilation, in particular variational assimilation. My work is focused on operational application for the Mediterranean Sea. 

Role in project

I will be responsible for OGS of the development and application of hybrid methods in Task 3.3. Hybrid ensemble-variational methods will be explored both in 1D and 3D applications with the final aim of 3D assimilation on target indicators.

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Simone Spada

Simone Spada

at Technologist at Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS)

Expertise
Mathematician (PhD in 2019) researching and developing data assimilation ensemble schemes. Developer of the forecast and data assimilation ensemble framework for the CMEMS 3D physical-biogeochemical coupled model OGSTM-BFM.
Role in project
Role in the SEAMLESS project: 1D implementation of the OGS 3Dvar scheme in the EAT prototype.  Development of 3D ensemble forecast and data assimilation. 

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Tsuyoshi Wakamatsu

Researcher at Stiftelsen Nansensenteret for Miljö og Fjernmåling (NERSC)

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Çağlar Yumruktepe

Researcher at Stiftelsen Nansensenteret for Miljö og Fjernmåling (NERSC)

caglar.yumruktepe@NOSPAMnersc.no

Expertise

Ocean biogeochemical modelling

Role in project

ECOSMO is the biogeochemical model that is used for CMEMS Arctic operational and reanalysis models. I am responsible for the development, application and validation of ECOSMO. In SEAMLESS, my role is to configure GOTM-ECOSMO at Station-M timeseries (66oN 2oE) where the assimilation experiments will be conducted.  With my experience of the model, I will also be involved in the interpretation of model/assimilation results.

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