Biography

I obtained an aerospace engineering Master degree from ISAE-SupAero in Toulouse in 2018 where I specialized in Earth Observation, space sciences and orbital satellites conception and operation. There, I did two 6-months internships as scientific engineer in private companies: the first in Reuniwatt in La Réunion, Fr where I worked on high resolution short-term forecasting of the cloud cover and solar irradiation from geostationary satellite image; the second in Noveltis in Toulouse, Fr where I implemented inverse methods for estimating greenhouse gas emission from spectro-imaging satellite observations. In 2018, I started a PhD in physical oceanography in Grenoble, Fr at IGE (Institut des Geosciences de l’Environnement) where I focused on the merging of satellite altimetry observations to prepare the scientific exploitation of the CNES/NASA SWOT satellite mission.

Research

As an intern fellow researcher in the ESA Science Hub, I’m extending the work done during my PhD by using data synergies among European satellites to better estimate ocean circulation at fine space-time scales.

My main focus is on the implementation of physically constrained inverse methods to estimate upper-layer ocean currents from satellite observations of sea surface height, temperature and ocean colour. I’m designing the ocean models (e.g. resolving Quasi-Geostrophic and Advection-Diffusion equations) and the inversion methods (e.g. based on 4-Dimensional Variational Assimilation and Deep Learning techniques). The experimental methods are mainly tested within real set-up in the North Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea and compared to operational products.

I’m also involved in the ESA Sentinel-3 Next Generation Topography expert team where I’m studying the benefit of wide-swath altimetry data (such as the one provided by the recently launched NASA/CNES SWOT mission) for observing ocean dynamical features at scales below 100km in wavelength.

In a broad view, since my PhD, I’m a strong advocate of open science and keep implementing open-source documented codes for the community.