I recently delivered a public webinar to the Royal Society of Tasmania. In this lecture I presented my recent research into the response of the Southern Ocean to human-caused changes in the atmosphere. The lecture was recorded and you can view it online.
Moving to IMAS
I’ve recently accepted a new position at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) in Hobart, Tasmania as part of the new Australian Antarctic Partnership Program, starting in November.
Aronnax: an idealised isopycnal model
I spent the first part of my PhD working with a very simplified model of the ocean – the science didn’t go anywhere, but eventually the model did. After moving to MIT I was lucky enough to work with a real programmer and together we improved the model substantially. I learnt a lot working with Alexey, and am very excited about the new and improved model. It’s easier to use, comes with vastly improved documentation, and the Fortran is hidden behind a friendly Python wrapper. Our short paper describing the model has just been published in the Journal of Open Source Software.
If you’ve been looking for a fast and flexible isopycnal model, then Aronnax might be just what you’re after.
Southern Ocean workshop
I recently attended a Southern Ocean workshop in Colorado, USA, where my presentation was recorded and posted online. I spoke about the influence of the Southern Annular Mode (the strength and latitude of the Roaring Forties) on sea ice extent around Antarctica.
The BBQ challenge
The greenhouse gas emissions from food can be substantial – but how much do they vary between different types of food? And how do they compare with other emissions, say from driving to a scenic spot for a barbecue?
Are food miles irrelevant?
As a climate scientist I understand that our greenhouse gas emissions are impacting the climate. Like many people I try to minimise my environmental impact – I ride my bike whenever I can, I eat very little meat, and I used to care about food miles.
That’s right, I used to. Continue reading
Is this how you feel?
Yesterday I discovered Is this how you feel?
Australian climate scientists were asked to hand write letters describing their feelings. Those letters show the emotional toll that we as a society are inflicting on our climate scientists – and yet many of them are optimistic about the future.
Go to the website. Read some of the letters and share their stories with your friends.
Noise cancelling headphones
On the advice of a couple of friends I recently invested in some noise cancelling headphones, and I love them. They are amazing; engine noise on aeroplanes is almost completely silenced. They were so impressive that I wanted to learn more about how they work.
Ocean Sciences Meeting 2014
This post is mostly for people who are also at the Ocean Sciences Meeting, but if you’ve stumbled across this from somewhere else, welcome!
There were lots of details about my work that I wanted to share, but I couldn’t squeeze everything onto my poster. Even though the following details didn’t make the cut, I think that they’re really interesting and worth sharing. The rest of this post will make a lot more sense if you’ve read the poster first.
The mathematics of special effects
When you think of Hollywood you might not think of maths, but maths can help us to create some pretty neat special effects. If you’ve ever wanted to fake your own moon landing, or film giants, then this is the post for you.
Edward Doddridge 