Team

The Ocean Carbon for Climate project team

Professor Jamie Shutler (University of Exeter) is responsible for guiding the project’s scientific and technical activity. Project Manager Ruth Wilson (Space ConneXions Ltd) is responsible for the management and execution of the work to be performed, and for the coordination of the consortium’s work. The project draws on the scientific expertise of the partners below.

The University of Exeter (UoE)

The University of Exeter team are based in the Centre for Geography and Environmental Science, University of Exeter Penryn Campus. They conduct research in human and physical geography and environmental science with expertise covering past, present and future global environmental change, biological and physical oceanography, Earth observation and remote sensing using light aircraft and drones, and sustainable development. The University of Exeter’s Professor Jamie Shutler is responsible for the supervision, steering and coordination of the project’s technical and scientific activity, and is involved in all tasks. Dr Daniel Ford is leading Task 2 (algorithm development).

Project scientific lead: Prof. Jamie Shutler.

Task 2 Lead: Dr Daniel Ford

Space ConneXions Ltd (SCL)

SCL’s core activity is the management of Earth Observation projects on behalf of governmental and international organisations. SCL are providing the overall project management for the OC4C contract, and is responsible for the management and execution of the work to be performed, and for the coordination of the consortium’s work.

Project manager: Ruth Wilson

Support project manager: Sorrel Nelson

Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML)

PML has one of the largest aquatic remote sensing groups in the world with approx. 35 permanent staff, undertaking research and operational near-real time (NRT) and Delayed Time regional and global EO processing and distribution for a variety of projects including UK NEODAAS, ESA OC-CCI and Lakes-CCI. The PML team contribute to all aspects of the project, but in particular will lead and perform half of the work in task 4 ( Impact Assessment and Model Intercomparison).

PML leads: Dr Shubha Sathyendranath, Dr Gemma Kulk and Dr Lekshmi Krishnakumary

Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)

VLIZ has the ambition to push the state of the art in marine carbon observation and data modelling in order to develop a measurement-driven carbon budgets, positioning us amongst the pioneers in marine carbon research on shelf sea systems worldwide. Quantifying sources and sinks of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases will serve policy makers in their efforts (e.g. in national climate reports) to report regional carbon budgets as part of the UN-stock take and set ambitious threshold to encourage decarbonization efforts. Vliz will host the mid-term meeting and lead the design and writing the sampling experiment publication within Task 4. They also contribute to tasks 1, 5 and 6.

Leads: Dr Peter LandSchuzter, Dr Alizee Roobaert

The Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI)

AWI conducts multidisciplinary research in the Arctic and Antarctic, as well as in temperate latitudes. AWI also holds a Computing and Data Centre which supports high performance scientific computing used in climate studies. With the AWI Climate Model, AWI researchers have contributed to the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 6 (CMIP6) that informs the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). AWI co-lead the design and modelling aspects of one of the sampling experiments within task 4, and will be performing all of the model data extraction and sampling in preparation for one of the task 4 sampling experiments. They also contribute to tasks 1, 5 and 6.

Lead: Dr Judith Hauck, with Dr Sreeush Mohanen

Columbia University

The Columbia University team is based at the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, with its campus located in Palisades, NY. Lamont is the scientific research heart of the Columbia Climate School, which was founded in 2020 to develop and inspire knowledge-based solutions and educate future leaders for just and prosperous societies on a healthy planet. Columbia University will design and extract the model data for the second sampling experiment within Task 4, and will also contribute to tasks 1, 5 and 6.

Lead: Professor Galen Mckinley, with Dr Amanda Fay and Dr Thea Hatlen Heimdal

The Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE)

LSCE researchers have a well-established expertise in ocean carbon cycle and climate change impact studies. Access to high performance computing has allowed the development of global coupled ocean circulation biogeochemical models, as well as of ensemble-based methods for the reconstruction at increased spatial resolution of the global surface ocean carbonate system. Within the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service, LSCE leads the reconstruction of global surface ocean carbonate system variables, as well as air-sea fluxes of CO2 through a neural-network ensemble approach. LSCE will contribute interpolated data fields to the Task 2 experiments, along with contributing to tasks 1, 5 and 6.

Lead: Dr Marion Gahlen, Dr Frederic Chevallier