Wallenberg Prolongation Grant to Sebastiaan Swart for climate research in the Southern Ocean

The awarded project will collect new information about how carbon and heat are exchanged in the Southern Ocean, and therefore reveal better the role of the Southern Ocean on our Earth’s climate. New robotic-based technologies, such as underwater gliders, will be used to collect new oceanographic data around Antarctica, including under the sea ice.

Make use of ESA/NASA satellite

Image

“The work around Antarctica is challenging to execute, and it’s a scary and risky prospect for remotely piloting the robots in these harsh oceans, but it’s also a lot of fun and well worth the exciting new data,” says Sebastiaan Swart.

Sebastiaan Swart’s research group will also make use of a new ESA/NASA satellite launch in 2022, called SWOT, that will observe the study sites from space at very high resolution.

Add piece to global climate puzzle

“Ultimately, we hope we can add a tiny piece to the global climate puzzle, which is to improve climate models so that Sweden can better predict and mitigate against future climate change,” says Sebastiaan Swart.

The Prolongation Grant gives both the research group and the research field validation, and will also help bring in new people with new expertise to the Department of Marine Sciences.

“It’s with the support of the research group and my colleagues in the Department, that this has been granted. I am very happy of the exposure this grant can give to the Department of Marine Sciences' and The University of Gothenburg's profile – we are grateful to the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation that help foster this research,” says Sebastiaan Swart.

Text: Annika Wall