PhD student in physical oceanography concentrating on the impact of warm and salty Indian Ocean water leakage into the Cape Cauldron region of the southeast Atlantic.
Sijing Shen holds a BSc from the College of Marine Sciences, Shanghai Ocean University and a MSc from the School of Ocean Science, Bangor University, where she is currently pursuing a PhD.
SWOT-AdAC: What is your field of research and how did you choose it?
Sijing Shen: My field of research is mainly on Physical Oceanography, concentrating on the impact of warm and salty Indian Ocean water leakage into the Cape Cauldron region of the southeast Atlantic. In my research, I figure out the long-term trends in ocean heat content distribution across the Cape Basin with satellite and reanalysis hydrographic data including temperature, salinity, and height. After that, vertical and horizontal mixing rates from eddies and filaments across the Cape Basin will be examined with echosounder data and VMP (Vertical Microstructural Profile) data. Finally, I will combine these physical processes with the ecosystem in Cape Basin.
Fed by the warm and salty Agulhas Current leakage, the Cape Cauldron is a global hotspot of eddy kinetic energy, tied with the stability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and climate change. So far, how much energy influence the AMOC has not been quantified. That is the reason why I choose this research as my PhD project.
SWOT-AdAC: How is your field of research related to SWOT?
SS: My research is part of the QUICCHE (Quantifying inter-ocean fluxes across the Cape Cauldron hotspot of eddy kinetic energy) project. QUICCHE is one of the campaigns in SWOT-AdAC Consortium.
SWOT-AdAC: What do you find exciting about SWOT and the QUICCHE campaign and how will you contribute to it?
SS: It is challenging to collect not only high-resolution but also large-region data during the cruise but these data are the key to unlock several important ocean questions. SWOT can fill this ‘data gap’. I feel excited and look forward to using SWOT satellite data. I will be participating in the QUICCHE project, one of the SWOT-AdAC campaigns. I will help interpret and exploit SWOT data in Cape Cauldron with in situ observational data.
SWOT-AdAC: What are your plans after the SWOT-AdAC campaign (max 300 words)
SS: I will keep going in academia. I plan to apply for a postdoctoral position or an academic job in Oceanography. The positions which are related to SWOT will be my preference.
