Phd thesis

Modelling the mass balance & salinity of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice, 2008 (pdf)

Project

I'm trying to understand the links between sea ice, biogeochemistry and climate.
Using models, i'm currently trying to develop an ocean-sea ice bio-physical modelling systems.
Not doing it alone: in Louvain-la-Neuve, we use LIM, our local sea ice model,
which is part of the ocean model NEMO.
The code is available via the NEMO website.

Research interests

• Large-scale sea ice and climate and modelling
  I contributed to the development of LIM.
  LIM is a dynamic, thermodynamic sea ice model with ice thickness distribution and salinity variations.
  The image shows the 1979-2006 mean ice concentration simulated by NEMO-LIM3.
  The black line is the satellite-observed ice edge.


• One-dimensional sea ice modelling
  I also developed the one-dimensional version of LIM, LIM1D.
  LIM1D version simulates ice thickness, snow depth, and vertical profiles of ice temperature and salinity.
  It is a nice tool to work at process scales. The code is available on demand and should be online some time soon.


• Sea ice biogeochemistry modelling
  Sea ice hosts microbial communities.
  Modelling those helps to know how polar marine ecosystems respond to climate change,
  and how future oceans will interact with atmospheric composition.
  LIM1D includes a simple nutrient-phytoplankton component to simulate ice algae
  Our approach is original: brine dynamics and nutrient supply are fully coupled.
  The image shows ice temperature, salinity, silicates and chlorophyll-a in a test simulation of Weddell Sea first-year ice.
  LIM1D is also being coupled to the Biogeochemical Flux Model (BFM).
  A version should come out in the next few months.
  We are also working on a 3D implementation of sea ice ecosystems within NEMO


• Coupled climate models
  I'm following the effort made in climate models IPSL-CM and EC-Earth.

Field

I was brought to the polar regions on two field trips by insightful field scientists who think modelers should go in the field. See the Photos tab for more on this.