PhD student interested in the synoptic scale air-sea exchange of carbon dioxide in the Southern Ocean using insight from autonomous gliders.
Tesha Toolse did a BSc(Hons) degree in Ocean and Atmosphere Science, followed by a MSc by dissertation degree specialising in Physical Oceanography at the University of Cape Town. She is currently pursuing a PhD with the Southern Ocean Carbon-Climate Observatory (SOCCO-CSIR), in affiliation with the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
SWOT AdAC: What is your field of research and how did you choose it?
Tesha Toolse: My field of research is the synoptic scale air-sea exchange of carbon dioxide in the Southern Ocean using insight from autonomous gliders. To be more specific, how storms and sub-mesoscale features like eddies impact the air-sea exchange of carbon dioxide.
SWOT AdaC: How is your field of research related to SWOT?
TT: The high-resolution altimetry data that will be provided by SWOT would be beneficial in the identification of sub-mesoscale features and improve on the largely lacking high resolution observations of such features. During the QUICCHE expedition, we’ve deployed a wave glider which will record carbon dioxide observations of the surface ocean and the atmosphere at one of the crossovers of SWOT.
SWOT AdAC: What do you find exciting about SWOT and the QUICCHE campaign in which you will be participating? How will you contribute to the campaign?
The Wave Glider has the ability to take meteorological measurements as well as atmospheric and oceanic CO2 observations, amongst others, making them crucial observing platforms in remote part of the ocean. I joined the QUICCHE team to help deploy one of those Wave Glider and take underway CO2 measurements from the ship, all of which will help improve our understanding of the fine sub-mesoscale air-sea CO2 exchange which governs the Agulhas leakage. What makes QUICCHE a one-of-a-kind expedition for me is the use of a large array of instruments which include gliders, CTD, profiling floats, vertical microstructure profiler, wireflyer, moorings, drifters, and of course, all collocating with the SWOT crossover! An Oceanographer’s pot of gold, right?
SWOT AdAC: What are your plans after the SWOT-AdAC campaign
TT: I plan to continue my PhD work in the Southern Ocean until the SWOT dataset will be made available and the analysis of the data from QUICCHE may begin.