MOPGA – TROCODYN: Tropical cyclone activity and upper-ocean dynamics

• Three central scientific themes:
  1. the study El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), its dynamical mechanisms and teleconnections in the Pacific.
  2. The study of Tropical and Extra-Tropical storm activity
  3. The study of impacts of these storms (coastal dynamics and vulnerability)

In particular with 2 PhD students (Lisa Maillard and Gabriela Escobar) I am also studying the interactions between ENSO, the equatorial Kelvin waves and the tropical instability waves and how they affect the ENSO cycle and the Tropical cyclone activity and mean state in the Eastern Pacific, a key region for climate studies and projections.

I am also a co-Investigator on ANR POSEIDON (submitted, P.I. L. Renault) and LEFE VENUS (submitted, P.I. L. Renault) that aim at studying the complex air-sea-wave interactions in the Western Boundary currents (e.g. Gulf stream)

I am a co-Investigator on the U.S National Science Foundation (NSF) project by P.I Fei-Fei Jin (U. Hawaii) “ENSO diversity and complexity” that focuses on understanding El Niño complex temporal and spatial behaviors characterized by large variations in region of action, amplitude, event durations, phase locking, broad spectrum, etc