ObsSea4Clim Training #8 - Ocean transport: an application area for EOVs / ECVs

ABOUT THE TRAINING Duration: 60 minutes Contents: This training session provides an overview of ocean transport Essential Climate Variables (ECVs), datasets, validation and relevance for climate monitoring. The session starts with general information about ocean currents, and later deep-dives into three examples of transport observations and application of climate indicators, namely: the Faroe Bank Channel, the Deep Western Boundary Current (the lower, returning limb of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation), and the Ibiza Channel. Recording available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMCLQlwM2Sg Your trainers Dr. Karin Margretha H. Larsen is a physical oceanographer and head ofb the Environmental department at Havstovan (Faroe Marine Research Institute). She completed her PhD at the University in Bergen working on shelf circulation and impact on ecosystems. She has been involved in monitoring AMOC branches across the Greenland-Scotland Ridge for nearly 30 years and has participated in several EU funded projects on ocean transports. Dr. Fehmi Dilmahamod is a sea-going physical oceanographer at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. His work focuses on the North Atlantic Subpolar Gyre and spans scales, from the large-scale Deep Western Boundary Current to mesoscale features and associated submesoscale processes at their edges. He combines moored arrays, autonomous gliders and ship-based measurements to observe and understand these processes. Dr. Vincent Combes is a Ramón y Cajal Fellow at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) in Mallorca, Spain, since 2022. Previously, Vincent was a Senior Research Associate at Oregon State University (2010-2022) after receiving a PhD from Georgia Tech in 2010 and an Engineering Degree in Hydraulics from ENSEEIHT, France, in 2005. Vincent's research focuses on numerical modeling of realistic ocean flows, with applications to regional and coastal seas including the Gulf of Alaska, California Current, Peru–Chile Current, Patagonian Shelf, and Southeast Atlantic. He is particularly interested in ocean variability, coastal and shelf-break upwelling, eddy dynamics, shelf–deep-ocean exchanges, marine heatwaves, and remote sensing. Vincent also investigates physical–biological interactions, particularly the role and transport of iron as a limiting nutrient for phytoplankton growth in the Southwest Atlantic. Subscribe to the upcoming training sessions: follow ObsSea4Clim on Eventbrite Reading Resources / References to the presentation: Ocean transport resources ObsSea4Clim spotlight on ocean transport: https://zenodo.org/records/17609727 Selected publications Chuncheng Guo, Shuting Yang, Ilana Schiller-Weiss, Jorge Bernales, Steffen M. Olsen, Torben Koenigk, Rashed Mahmood, Tian Tian, and Klaus Wyser (2026) Reversible Atlantic overturning despite continued Greenland ice sheet melt, Sci. Adv. 12 (42), https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aee5373 Larsen, K.M.H., Eriksdóttir, G., Hansen, B. et al. (2026) Iceland-Faroe overflow revealed by in-situ observations. Nat Commun https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-77220-w Eriksdóttir, G., Hansen, B., Larsen, K. M. H., Olsen, S. M., Gierisch, A. M. U., and Ólafsdóttir, S. R. (2026) Water mass modification of the warm Atlantic Inflow towards the Arctic across the Iceland-Faroe Ridge, Ocean Sci., 22, 2405–2423 https://doi.org/10.5194/os-22-2405-2026 Schiller‐Weiss, I., Hátún, H., Olsen, S. M., Larsen, K. M. H., & Schulz, H. (2026). Pathways and upstream origins of warming dense waters supplying the Faroe Bank Channel overflow. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 131, 2026JC024510. https://doi.org/10.1029/2026JC024510 Larsen, K. M. H., Hansen, B., Hátún, H., Johansen, G. E., Østerhus, S., & Olsen, S. M. (2024). The Coldest and Densest Overflow Branch Into the North Atlantic is Stable in Transport, But Warming. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 51, No. 16. https://zenodo.org/records/13343494 Diabaté, S. T., Fraser, N. J., White, M., Berx, B., Marié, L., & McCarthy, G. D. (2025). On the wind-driven European shelf sea-level variability and the associated oceanic circulation. Continental Shelf Research, Vol. 291, Article 105466. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csr.2025.105466 Sun, Y., Pickart, R. S., Lin, P., Pacini, A., Macrander, A., Larsen, K. M. H., Hátún, H., Frajka-Williams, E., Lan, J., Dilmahamod, A. F. (2025). Reduced Transport of Overflow Water in the West Greenland Boundary Current System: The Role of Upstream Entrainment. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 55, 2119–2139. https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-25-0024. Fu, Y., Lozier, M. S., Bower, A., Burmeister, K., Carrilho Biló, T., Cyr, F., et al. (2025). Characterizing the interannual variability of North Atlantic subpolar overturning. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 52, e2025GL114672. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GL11467 Fox, A. D., Fraser, N. J., Burmeister, K., Jones, S. C., Cunningham, S. A., Drysdale, L. A., Dilmahamod, A. F., and Karstensen, J. (2026): The Scotland-Canada overturning array (SCOTIA): twenty years of meridional overturning in the subpolar North Atlantic, EGUsphere [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6176 Miller, U.K., Palter, J., Park, E. et al. Central role of Labrador Sea convection for transport of oxygen into the deep North Atlantic Ocean. Nat. Geosci. 19, 1098–1104 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-026-02057-3 Juza M, Heslop E, Zarokanellos ND and Tintor ́e J (2025) Multi-scale ocean variability in the Ibiza Channel over 14-year repeated glider missions. Front. Mar. Sci. 12:1604087. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2025.1604087 Other resources: Evaluating Altimetry-Derived Transports Against 15 Years of Gliders Observations in the Ibiza Channel – poster presented on Ocean Sciences Meeting https://zenodo.org/records/21066412