(Closed) (MMO) Multi-source Modelling of The Ocean: Coupling Earth Observations with Acoustic Waves
At a glance
| Title | Multi-source Modelling of The Ocean: Coupling Earth Observations with Acoustic Waves |
| Reference | UTAP-EXPL/IET/0011/2021 |
| Scientific Area | Space-Earth Interactions |
| Funding (PT) | 49 969,2 EUR |
| Funding (US) | 49 999 USD |
| Leading Institutions | Associação do Instituto Superior Técnico para a Investigação e o Desenvolvimento (IST-ID), PT Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, The Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, UT Austin, USA |
| Participating Institutions | Colab +Atlantic, PT Instituto Dom Luiz (IDL), PT |
| Duration | |
| Start date | March 1, 2022 |
| End date | |
| Keywords | Seismic oceanography, Earth observations, Spatial data science, Physical oceanography |
What is MMO about?
On bigger scales, ocean currents are considered to be uniform and horizontally homogeneous movements of seawater and have been a focus of investigation in physical oceanography. At smaller scales, ocean currents are highly heterogeneous and difficult to sample directly.
These processes have direct implications for primary productivity and vertical transfer of nutrients, as well as for vertical carbon mix into the deep ocean, with a direct impact on climate change. Due to sampling difficulties at both small and large scales, most of our understanding of the ocean processes are based on high-resolution numerical models, which run in large-scale computational infrastructures.
MMO proposal aims to explore current knowledge about the ocean through the integration of information from multiple sources of data to build three-dimensional ocean models.
What difficulty is MMO addressing?
Ocean currents both at smaller and larger scales are difficult to sample, requiring numerical models and expensive large-scale computational infrastructures. Modelling the complex small-scale ocean dynamics of the ocean have leveraged remote observations from multiple sources.
How will MMO model the complex small-scale ocean dynamics?
MMO will exploit the unique synergy between the expertise of the Portuguese and UT Austin teams on spatial data science methods, geophysics, scientific machine learning and computational mathematics to create computationally cheap high-resolution three-dimensional ocean models built from seismic oceanography data, satellite images and direct observations through a generalized spatial relationship between the three data domains.
How is MMO likely to impact oceanography investigation?
MMO will provide a unique capability of modelling the ocean at high resolution, using data that already exists and providing the opportunity to look at this reality from a completely new perspective.
Key Expected Outcomes
- New models of the ocean that do not require heavy parameterization and large computational infrastructures.
Project Team
Leonardo Azevedo
Principal Investigator in Portugal (CERENA/IST) MMO
Leonardo Azevedo
Principal Investigator in Portugal (CERENA/IST) MMO
| Name | Leonardo Azevedo |
| Role in the UT Austin Portugal | Principal Investigator (2021 ERP) |
| Affiliation Institution | CERENA / Instituto Superior Técnico |
| Position in Affiliation Institution | Assistant Professor |
Tan Bui
Principal Investigator in Austin STorM
Tan Bui
Principal Investigator in Austin STorM
| Relation with the Program | PI STorM |
| Role | Assistant Professor |
| Institution | The University of Texas at Austin, Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences |
| Institution Website | https://www.ices.utexas.edu |
- Other team members in Portugal: Luís Matias (Co-PI; IDL/FCUL), Hugo Matias (CERENA/IST), Álvaro Peliz (IDL/FCUL), Ana Filipa Duarte (+Atlantic), Renato Mendes (+Atlantic)