Senior Researcher · SOCCO, CSIR · South Africa
Isabelle Giddy
Ocean turbulence · Observing the ocean with robots · The coupled ocean–atmosphere
I'm curious about how winds and waves stir the upper ocean. I chase turbulence at the air–sea boundary with autonomous gliders and surface robots, then use models and theory to understand what that mixing means for heat, carbon and our climate.
Interesting things happen at boundaries.
Research interests
- Air–sea interactionHow momentum, heat and carbon cross the ocean surface.
- Boundary layer turbulenceMixing in the ocean surface boundary layer, observed and modelled.
- Wind–wave–current interactionsStokes drift, Langmuir turbulence and wave-driven mixing.
- Autonomous ocean observingGliders and surface robots that measure turbulence where ships rarely go.
Latest papers
- 2026
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2026
Waves Explain Observed Similarity Scaling of Turbulence Dissipation in the Southern Ocean Journal of Physical Oceanography · doi:10.1175/JPO-D-25-0076.1
- 2026
Research notes
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How waves modify TKE in surface boundary layers
Wind stress at the ocean surface transfers momentum into the ocean surface boundary layer. It also forces the creation of waves. Waves themselves break and transfer momentum into... -
What causes winter water warming in the Southern Ocean?
Winter Water is a mode water that forms during austral summer in the Southern Ocean south of the subpolar front.
From the blog
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