A look back at June 16, when Yan Barabinot defended his thesis entitled ‘Coherence and general properties of mesoscale eddies in the global ocean’, under the supervision of Sabrina Speich and Xavier Carton.

In the ocean, instabilities of major currents give rise to mesoscale eddies, which play a key role in the geographical redistribution of heat, salt, and biogeochemical products. During his thesis, Yan looked at the multiple definitions of the concept of “coherence” used to characterise these mesoscale eddies. Using an insitu database from oceanographic campaigns combined with numerical simulations, Yan proposed a new definition of coherence based on the thermohaline properties of eddy cores. The presence of thermohaline anomalies effectively indicates the transport of a coherent water mass by an eddy, and thus allows him to evaluate its material coherence. His results show that eddy boundaries are dynamic, turbulent, and their intensity depends on the Rossby number of the eddy. These boundaries delineate the interface between the trapped water mass and the surrounding fluid. Furthermore, he demonstrates that the vertical extent of eddies is controlled by the local stratification. The tilting of isopycnals is the main source of density anomaly, while anomalies along isopycnals do not influence eddy dynamics.

Congratulations to him, and all the best for the future in the world of research!

Link to one of his latest articles: https://lnkd.in/eXiE4yCu