Hello, I’m Gwendal Marechal, but you can call me Gwen. I serve as a physical oceanographer at Mines Oceanography. Joining the Colorado School of Mines in the Fall semester of 2022 as a PostDoc, my research delves into surface gravity waves—the ones you encounter while surfing.

In my research, my primary goal is to unravel how these waves contribute, first, to the global and regional climate through their interactions with the upper ocean and, second, how they impact remote sensing observations. Indeed, because surface waves occupy the air-sea interface, they play a crucial role in this transition zone via their transfer of heat, momentum, and gases between the air and the ocean. In the context of the observation of the ocean surface from satellites (current, sea level height), given that waves represent the first medium observed by these satellites, they strongly impact these measurements.

I am currently involved in the Submesoscale Ocean Dynamic Experiment (S-MODE) that aims to understand the role of the short-scale oceanic currents on the air-sea fluxes and the vertical transport of biological material, momentum, and heat in the deeper ocean.

In addition to my PostDoc work, I am very passionate about the development of low-cost wave instruments to be crafted in college workshops and effortlessly deployed during fieldwork. Growing up on the coast, I once enjoyed surfing. However, as I’ve adapted to life in the mountains of Colorado, I’ve turned to trail running when I’m not in front of my screen looking at numerical waves and surface currents.