PhD student in physical oceanography looking at fine scale dynamics using underwater autonomous vehicles.
Estel Font got a Master’s degree from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain) and she is currently a PhD student at the University of Gothenburg (Gothenburg, Sweden).
SWOT AdAC: What is your field of research and how is it related to SWOT?
Estel Font: I am a physical oceanographer looking at fine scale dynamics in the Gulf of Oman and their role in ventilation of the Arabian Sea oxygen minimum zone using underwater autonomous vehicles.
SWOT AdAC: How is your field of research related to SWOT?
EF: We use gliders to measure fine scale fronts and structures that SWOT will be able to see form space and capture their variability.
What do you find exciting about SWOT and the QUICCHE campaign in which you will be participating? How will you contribute to the campaign?
EF: I’m very excited to see a lot of different observations and instruments (Lagrangian and Eulerian in the ocean) working together with the high-resolution satellite observations for a common goal. Also, expanding my knowledge to another region! I will be deploying 2 underwater autonomous vehicles (SeaExploer gliders) measuring turbulence, currents, and biogeochemical fluxes (nitrate, oxygen…).
SWOT AdAC: What are your plans after the SWOT-AdAC campaign?
EF: Keep working on fine scale observations in the Gulf of Oman (PhD research topic) and hopefully at some point look at the data collected by QUICCHE. I’m sure there are a lot of points in common with the datasets and research questions.
