Kimberly Peterson ’19
Geosciences
Surface Heat and Carbon Flux in the Southern Ocean
The Southern Ocean is an important part of the global heat and carbon budgets, but its workings are not well understood. The purpose of this project was to analyze observational and model data to diagnose the driving mechanisms behind the interannual variability in heat and carbon flux across the Southern Ocean. With the guidance of my mentor, I organized and analyzed float and model data using MATLAB and created multiple graphs in order to present this data. My understanding and skills in MATLAB improved quite a bit, as did my understanding of physical oceanography and the Southern Ocean. This internship gave me the tools to model my junior project and thesis off of, and gave me an interest in studying the Southern Hemisphere’s dynamics, as they are relatively understudied but can yield important and interesting findings.
* This internship is connected to the PEI Climate and Energy Grand Challenges project, “Southern Ocean Observations and Modeling.”
2017
Climate and Oceans
Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Princeton University
Jorge Sarmiento, George J. Magee Professor of Geoscience and Geological Engineering and Professor of Geosciences; Haidi Chen, Postdoctoral Research Associate, AOS