PhD project “Attributing Summer Arctic Polynyas (ASAP)”, funded by the Swedish Space Research School. Ca 4.9 million SEK. I am the PI. Co-I is Luisa Ickes, Chalmers. April 2026 – December 2030
The aim of the project is to determine the drivers of the emergence and variability of summer polynyas in the “last ice area” of the Arctic, as well as to improve their retrievability by better understanding their impact on the climate system. The sub objectives are:
To determine why summer polynyas open where and when they do in the Arctic, and why they change shape while they are open, in particular the respective roles of dynamics and thermodynamics in a changing climate;
To model the air-sea fluxes and more generally the impact of the polynyas on the weather, in order to (eventually) improve the polynya retrievability;
To analyse unique multidisciplinary data (ocean physics, BGC, ecosystem) collected in summer 2020 in one of these polynyas.
Team:
PhD student – to be recruited soon;
Myself as main supervisor;
Luisa Ickes from Chalmers as co-supervisor;
Collaborations with Kay Ohshima, Hokkaido University, Japan; Lu Zhou, Uni Utrecht.
Publications:
Nothing yet, the project just started 🙂
Conference, seminar, or outreach presentations related to this project:
See each publication entry for access to the full texts (also available on my ResearchGate profile). Scroll to the bottom of the page or click here for selected media presence and outreach/blogging.
Publications with an asterisk * were led by a PhD student or postdoc under my supervision.
Preprints currently under review
C. Heuzé, J. Rheinlaender, T. Tian, and C.H.M. Wong (2026) Winter Arctic polynyas in CMIP6 models, The Cryosphere / EGUsphere, under review, doi:10.5194/egusphere-2026-901
Peer-reviewed publications
[55] B. Fox-Kemper, P. DeRepentigny, A. M. Treguier, C. Stepanek, E. O’Rourke, C. Mackallah, A. Meucci, Y. Aksenov, P. J. Durack, N. Feldl, V. Hernaman, C. Heuzé, D. Iovino, G. Maudan, A. L. Marquez, F. Massonnet, J. Mecking, D. Samanta, P. C. Taylor, W.-L. Tseng, and M. Vancoppenolle (2025) CMIP7 Data Request: Ocean and Sea Ice Priorities and Opportunities, Geoscientific Model Development Special issue: CMIP7 scientific objectives, experimental design, and organization, accepted, doi of preprint:10.5194/egusphere-2025-3083
[54*] C.H.M. Wong, C. Heuzé, L. Ickes, and L. Zhou (2026) The spatio-temporal variability, trends, and drivers of winter Arctic polynyas, Journal of Climate, in press, doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-25-0312.1
[53*] Z.B. Li, C. Heuzé, J.-N, Song, A.D Crawford, H-W Lai, and D. Chen (2026) All-season analysis of extratropical and Arctic cyclones over the Northern Hemisphere oceans during 1940-2024, Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres, vol 131, pp e2025JD044894, doi:10.1029/2025JD044894. Full-text here.
2025
[52] C. Heuzé and C.H.M. Wong (2025) Automatic detection of Arctic polynyas using hybrid supervised and unsupervised deep learning, The Cryosphere, vol 19, pp 6043–6058, doi:10.5194/tc-19-6043-2025. Full-text here.
[51] C. Heuzé, L. Carlstedt, L. Poropat, and H. Reese (2025) Drivers of high frequency extreme sea level around Northern Europe – Synergies between recurrent neural networks and Random Forest, Ocean Science, vol 21, pp 1813-1832, doi:10.5194/os-21-1813-2025. Full-text here.
[50] K. Schmidt, B. Niehoff, A. Cornils, W. Hagen, H. Flores, C. Heuzé, N. Welteke, N. Knueppel, S. Dorschner, M. Woll, K. Jones, G. Laudone, R. Campbell, C. Ashjian, C. Gelfman, R. Jenkins, K. Kville, B. Lebreton, G. Guillou, C. Hoppe, S. Sakinan, F. Schaafsma, N. Hildebrandt, G. Castellani, S. Belt, A. Fong, A. Atkinson, M. Graeve, and K. Shoemaker (2025) Seasonal vertical migration of large polar copepods reinterpreted as dispersal mechanism throughout the water column, Communications Earth & Environment, vol 6, pp 431, doi:10.1038/s43247-025-02389-9. Full-text here.
[49] F. Vermassen, C. Bird, T.M. Weitkamp, K.F. Darling, H. Farnelid, C. Heuzé, A.Y. Hsiang, S. Karam, C. Stranne, M. Sundbom, and H.K. Coxall (2025) The distribution and abundance of planktonic foraminifera under summer sea-ice in the Arctic Ocean, Biogeosciences, vol 22, pp 2261-2286 doi:10.5194/bg-22-2261-2025. Full-text here.
[48*] M. Athanase, R.H. Köhler, C. Heuzé, X.J. Levine, and R.S. Williams (2025). The Arctic Beaufort Gyre in CMIP6 Models: Present and Future, Journal of Geophysical Research Oceans, vol 130, e2024JC021873, doi:10.1029/2024JC021873. Full-text here.
2024
[47] C. Heuzé and A. Jahn (2024) The first ice-free day in the Arctic Ocean could occur before 2030, Nature Communications, vol 15, pp 10101, doi:10.1038/s41467-024-54508-3. Full-text here.
[46] A. Fong, C. Hoppe, […], C. Heuzé, et al. (2024) Overview of the MOSAiC expedition: Ecosystem. ElementaScience of the Anthropocene, vol 12, doi:10.1525/elementa.2023.00135. Full-text here.
[45*] S. Karam, C. Heuzé, M. Hoppmann, and L. de Steur, L. (2024) Continued warming of deep waters in Fram Strait, Ocean Science, vol 20, pp 917-930, doi:10.5194/os-20-917-2024. Full-text here.
[44] K. Schulz, Z. Koenig, M. Muilwijk, D. Bauch, C.J.M. Hoppe, E. Droste, M.Hoppmann, E.J. Chamberlain, G. Laukert, T. Stanton, A. Quintanilla Zurita, I. Fer, C. Heuzé , S. Karam, S. Mieruch-Schnuelle, T. Baumann, M. Vredenborg, S. Tippenhauer, M.A. Granskog (2024) The Eurasian Arctic Ocean along the MOSAiC drift (2019-2020): An interdisciplinary perspective on properties and processes. Elementa Science of the Anthropocene, vol 12, doi:10.1525/elementa.2023.00114. Full-text here.
[43] B. Rabe, […], C. Heuzé, et al. (2024) The MOSAiC Distributed Network: observing the coupled Arctic system with multidisciplinary, coordinated, platforms. Elementa Science of the Anthropocene, vol 12, doi: 10.1525/elementa.2023.00103. Full-text here.
[42] C. Heuzé and H. Liu (2024) No emergence of deep convection in the Arctic Ocean across CMIP6 models. Geophysical Research Letters, vol 51, e2023GL106499, doi:10.1029/2023GL106499. Full-text here.
[41*] L. Poropat, D. Jones, S.D.A. Thomas, and C. Heuzé (2024) Unsupervised classification of the Northwestern European seas based on satellite altimetry data. Ocean Science, vol 20, pp 201–215, doi:10.5194/os-20-201-2024. Full-text here.
2023
[40] C. Heuzé, O. Huhn, M. Walter, N. Sukhikh, S. Karam, W. Körtke, M. Vredenborg, K. Bulsiewicz, J. Sültenfuß, Y.-C. Fang, C. Mertens, B. Rabe, S. Tippenhauer, J. Allerholt, H. He, D. Kuhlmey, I. Kuznetsov, and M. Mallet (2023) A year of transient tracers chlorofluorocarbon 12 and sulfur hexafluoride, noble gases helium and neon, and tritium in the Arctic Ocean from the MOSAiC expedition (2019-2020).Earth System Science Data, vol 15, pp 5517–5534, doi:10.5194/essd-15-5517-2023. Full-text here.Ocean data here; snow data here.
[39*] S. Karam, C. Heuzé, V. Müller, and Y. Zheng (2023), Recirculation of Canada Basin Deep Water in the Amundsen Basin, Arctic. Journal of Physical Oceanography, vol 53, pp 2559–2574, doi:10.1175/JPO-D-22-0252.1. Full-text here.
[38] C. Heuzé, H. Zanowski, S. Karam, and M. Muilwijk (2023), The deep Arctic Ocean and Fram Strait in CMIP6 models. Journal of Climate, vol 36, pp 2551–2584, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-22-0194.1. Full-text here.
[37] M. Muilwijk, A. Nummelin, C. Heuzé, I.V. Polyakov, H. Zanowski, and L.H. Smedsrud (2023), Divergence in Climate Model Projections of Future Arctic Atlantification. Journal ofClimate, vol 36, pp 1727–1748, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-22-0349.1. Full-text here.
[36*] L. Zhou, C. Heuzé, and M. Mohrmann (2023), Sea Ice Production in the 2016 and 2017 Maud Rise Polynyas. Journal of Geophysical Research Oceans, vol 128, pp e2022JC019148, doi:10.1029/2022JC019148. Full-text here.
2022
[35] M. Konrad-Schmolke, R. Halama, D. Chew, C. Heuzé, J. de Hoog, and H. Ditterova (2022), Discrimination of thermodynamic and kinetic contributions to the heavy rare earth element patterns in metamorphic garnet. Journal of Metamorphic Geology, doi:10.1111/jmg.12703. Full-text here.
[34] C. Heuzé, S. Purkey, and G.C. Johnson (2022), It is high time we monitor the deep ocean. Environmental Research Letters, vol 17, pp 121002. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aca622. Full-text here.
[33] X. Gong, H. Liu, F. Wang, and C. Heuzé (2022), Of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation in the CMIP6 Project. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography, p.105193, doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2022.105193. Full-text here.
[32] A.M. de Boer, D.K. Hutchinson, F. Roquet, L.C. Sime, N.J. Burls, and C. Heuzé (2022), The impact of Southern Ocean topographic barriers on the ocean circulation and the overlying atmosphere, Journal of Climate, vol 35, pp 5805–5821, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-21-0896.1. Full-text here.
[31*] M. Mohrmann, S. Swart, and C. Heuzé (2022), Observed Mixing at the Flanks of Maud Rise in the Weddell Sea, Geophysical Research Letters, vol 49, e2022GL098036, doi:10.1029/2022GL098036. Full text here.
[30] P. Snoeijs-Leijonmalm, H. Flores, S. Sakinan, N. Hildebrandt, A. Svenson, G. Castellani, K. Vane, F.C. Mark, C. Heuzé, S. Tippenhauer, B. Niehoff, J. Hjelm, J. Hentati Sundberg, F.L. Schaafsma, R. Engelmann and The EFICA-MOSAiC Team (2022), Unexpected fish and squid in the central Arctic deep scattering layer, Science Advances, vol 8, doi:10.1126/sciadv.abj7536. Full-text here.
[29] B. Rabe, C. Heuzé, J. Regnery, et al. (2022), Overview of the MOSAiC expedition: Physical Oceanography, Elementa Science of the Anthropocene, vol 10, doi:10.1525/elementa.2021.00062. Full-text here.
[28] M. Shupe, M. Rex, […] C. Heuzé, et al. (2022), Overview of the MOSAiC expedition– Atmosphere, Elementa Science of the Anthropocene, vol 10, doi:10.1525/elementa.2021.00060. Full-text here.
[27] M. Nicolaus, D. Perovich, […] C. Heuzé, et al. (2022), Overview of the MOSAiC expedition: Snow and Sea Ice, Elementa Science of the Anthropocene, vol 10, doi:10.1525/elementa.2021.000046. Full-text here.
[26*] L. Zhou, C. Heuzé, and M. Mohrmann (2022), Early winter triggering of the Maud Rise Polynya, Geophysical Research Letters, vol 49, e2021GL096246, doi:10.1029/2021GL096246. Full-text here.
2021
[25*] M. Mohrmann, C. Heuzé, and S. Swart (2021), Southern Ocean polynyas in CMIP6 models, The Cryosphere, vol 15, pp. 4281–4313, doi:10.5194/tc-15-4281-2021. Full text here.
[24] A. Solomon, C. Heuzé, B. Rabe, S. Bacon, L. Bertino, P. Heimbach, J. Inoue, D. Iovino, R. Mottram, X. Zhang, Y. Aksenov, R. McAdam, A. Nguyen, R. Raj, and H. Tang (2021), Freshwater in the Arctic Ocean 2010-2019, Ocean Science, vol 17, pp. 1081–1102, doi:10.5194/os-17-1081-2021. Full-text here.
[23] C. Heuzé, L. Zhou, M. Mohrmann, and A. Lemos (2021), Spaceborne infrared imagery for early detection of Weddell Polynya openings, The Cryosphere, vol. 15, pp. 3401–3421, doi:10.5194/tc-15-3401-2021. Full-text here.
[22] C. Heuzé (2021), Antarctic Bottom Water and North Atlantic Deep Water in CMIP6 models, Ocean Science, vol 17, pp 59-90, doi:10.5194/os-17-59-2021. Full-text here.
2020
[21*] W. Aldenhoff, L.E.B. Eriksson, Y. Ye and C. Heuzé (2020), First-year and Multiyear Sea Ice Incidence Angle Normalization of Dual-polarized Sentinel-1 SAR Images in the Beaufort Sea, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing. vol 13, pp 1540-1550, doi: 10.1109/JSTARS.2020.2977506. Full-text here.
[20] A. Wåhlin, N. Steiger, E. Darelius, K.M. Assmann, M.S. Glessmer, H.K. Ha, L. Herraiz-Borreguero, C. Heuzé, A. Jenkins, T.W. Kim, A.K. Mazur, J. Sommeria, and S. Viboud (2020), Ice front blocking of ocean heat transport to an Antarctic ice shelf. Nature, vol 578, pp 568–571, doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2014-5. Full-text here.
2019
[19*] W. Aldenhoff, C. Heuzé, and L.E.B. Eriksson (2019), Sensitivity of Radar Altimeter Waveform to Changes in Sea Ice Type at Resolution of Synthetic Aperture Radar, Remote Sensing, “Combining Different Data Sources for Environmental and Operational Satellite Monitoring of Sea Ice Conditions” special issue, vol 11, pp 2602, doi: 10.3390/rs11222602. Full-text here.
[18*] W. Aldenhoff, L.E.B. Eriksson, and C. Heuzé (2019), Comparison of Sentinel-1 SAR And Sentinel-3 Altimetry Data For Ice Type Discrimination, Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 2019 IEEE International, doi: 10.1109/IGARSS.2019.8899041. Full-text here.
[17] C. Heuzé and M. Årthun (2019), The Atlantic inflow across the Greenland-Scotland ridge in climate models (CMIP5), ElementaScience of the Anthropocene, vol 7, p.16, doi: 10.1525/elementa.354. Full-text here.
[15] B. Hassett, T. Vonnahme, X. Peng, E. Jones, and C. Heuzé (2019), Global diversity and geography of the planktonic marine fungi, Botanica Marina, vol 63, pp 121-139, doi:10.1515/bot-2018-0113. Full-text here.
2018
[14] S. Swart, E.C. Campbell, C.Heuzé, K. Johnson, J.L. Lieser, M. Massom, M. Mazloff, M. Meredith, P. Reid, J-B. Sallée, and S. Stammerjohn (2018), Return of the Maud Rise polynya: climate litmus or sea ice anomaly? [in State of the Climate in 2017 chapter 6], Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., vol 99, S188-S189, doi:10.1175/2018BAMSStateoftheClimate.1. Full-text of Weddell Sea sidebar here, the entire chapter 6 about Antarctica here, or the entire State of the Climate here.
[13] C. Heuzé and W. Aldenhoff (2018), Near-Real Time Detection of the Re-Opening of the Weddell Polynya, Antarctica, from Spaceborne Infrared Imagery, Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 2018 IEEE International, doi:10.1109/IGARSS.2018.8518219. Full-text here.
[12*] W. Aldenhoff, C. Heuzé and L.E.B. Eriksson (2018), Comparison of ice/water classification in Fram Strait from C- and L-band SAR imagery, Annals of Glaciology, vol 59, pp 1-12, doi: 10.1017/aog.2018.7. Full-text here.
2017
[11] C. Heuzé, G.K. Carvajal and L.E.B. Eriksson (2017), Optimisation of sea surface current retrieval using a maximum cross correlation technique on modelled sea surface temperature, Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, vol 34, pp 2245–2255, doi: 10.1175/JTECH-D-17-0029.1. Full-text here.
[10] C. Heuzé (2017), North Atlantic deep water formation and AMOC in CMIP5 models, Ocean Science, vol 13, pp 609-622, doi:10.5194/os-13-609-2017. Full-text here.
[9] C. Heuzé, G.K. Carvajal, L.E.B. Eriksson and M. Soja-Woźniak (2017), Sea Surface Currents Estimated from Spaceborne Infrared Images Validated against Reanalysis Data and Drifters in the Mediterranean Sea, Remote Sensing, vol 9, pp 422, doi:10.3390/rs9050422. Full-text here.
[8] C. Heuzé, A. Wåhlin, H.L. Johnson and A. Münchow (2017), Pathways of meltwater export from Petermann Glacier, Greenland, Journal of Physical Oceanography, vol 47, pp 405-418, doi:10.1175/JPO-D-16-0161.1. Full-text here.
2016
[7] M.A. Stiller-Reeve, C. Heuzé, W.T. Ball, R.H. White, G. Messori, K. van der Wiel, I. Medhaug, A.H. Eckes, A. O’Callaghan, M.J. Newland, S.R. Williams, M. Kasoar, H.E. Wittmeier, and V. Kumer (2016), Improving together: better science writing through peer-learning, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, vol 20, pp 2965-2973, doi: 10.5194/hess-20-2965-2016. Full-text here.
[6] G.K. Carvajal, M. Wozniak, C. Heuzé, L.E.B Eriksson, J. Kronsell and B. Rydberg (2016), Assessment of satellite and ground-based estimates of surface currents, Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 2016 IEEE International, doi: 10.1109/IGARSS.2016.7730220. Full-text here.
2015
[5] C. Heuzé, F. Vivier, J. Le Sommer, J.-M. Molines and T. Penduff (2015), Can we map the interannual variability of the whole upper Southern Ocean with the current database of hydrographic observations?, Journal of Geophysical Research Oceans, vol 120, pp 7960-7978, doi:10.1002/2015JC011115. Full-text here.
— PhD below; independent career above —
[4] C. Heuzé, K.J. Heywood, D.P. Stevens and J.K. Ridley (2015), Changes in global ocean bottom properties and volume transports in CMIP5 models under climate change scenarios, Journal of Climate, vol 28, pp 2917-2944, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-14-00381.1. Full-text here.
[3] C. Heuzé, J.K. Ridley, D. Calvert, D.P. Stevens and K.J. Heywood (2015), Increasing vertical mixing to reduce Southern Ocean deep convection in NEMO3.4, Geoscientific Model Development, “NEMO” special issue, vol 8, pp 3119-3130 doi:10.5194/gmd-8-3119-2015. Full-text here.
[2] K. J. Heywood, S. Schmidtko, C. Heuzé, J. Kaiser, T. D. Jickells, B. Y. Queste, D. P. Stevens, M. Wadley, A. F. Thompson, S. Fielding, D. Guihen, E. Creed, J. K. Ridley and W. Smith (2014), Ocean processes at the Antarctic continental slope, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, vol 372, pp 20130047, doi:10.1098/rsta.2013.0047. Full-text here.
[1] C. Heuzé, K.J. Heywood, D.P. Stevens and J.K. Ridley (2013), Southern Ocean Bottom Water Characteristics in CMIP5 models, Geophysical Research Letters, vol 40, pp 1409-1414, doi:10.1002/grl.50287. Full-text here.
Other publications with a DOI
[c] M. D. Shupe, M. Rex, K. Dethloff, E. Damm, A. A. Fong, R. Gradinger, C. Heuzé, B. Loose, A. Makarov, W. Maslowski, M. Nicolaus, D. Perovish, B. Rabe, A. Rinke, V. Sokolov, A. Sommerfeld, (2020) A year drifting with the Arctic sea ice. In Arctic Report Card 2020, https://www.arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card. doi: 10.25923/9g3v-xh92.
[b] C. Heuzé, M. Mohrmann, E. Andersson and E. Crafoord (2020). Global decline of deep water formation with increasing atmospheric CO2. EarthArXiv. doi:10.31223/X56K6D.
[a] L. Waldrop Bergman and C. Heuzé (2018), Influence of initial stratification, wind and sea ice on the modelled oceanic circulation in Nares Strait, northwest Greenland, Ocean Science Discussion, doi:10.5194/os-2018-122. Note that this manuscript will *not* become a full Ocean Science publication.
Monographs
PhD thesis from the University of East Anglia (2015), Antarctic Bottom Water in CMIP5 models: characteristics, formation, evolution. Full-text here.
Master thesis from the LOCEAN-IPSL and Ecole Centrale de Nantes (2011), “Analyse de la variabilité interannuelle de la couche de mélange de l’Océan Austral” / Interannual variability of the Southern Ocean mixed layer. Only available in French.
Media presence and blogging
Regular contact with the English- and Scandinavian-speaking press to clarify that the Gulf Stream is not on the brink of collapsing.
December 2024: Large presence in the written press and on the radio of several countries following the publication of Heuzé and Jahn (2024) in Nature Communications. See summary on Altmetric.
Project “Monitoring Arctic Polynyas from Space (MAPS)”, funded by the Swedish National Space Agency, grant 2022-00149. Ca 5.3 million SEK. I am the PI. Co-I is Luisa Ickes, Chalmers. January 2023 – December 2026
The aim of the project is to determine the variability and improve the retrievability of polynyas in the Arctic. The three sub objectives are:
To determine why the polynyas open where and when they do in the Arctic, both in winter and in summer, both for coastal and open-ocean / hybrid ones;
To determine why they change shape while they are open, in particular the respective roles of dynamics and thermodynamics, and how predictible this is;
To model the air-sea fluxes and more generally the impact of the polynyas on the weather, in order to (eventually) improve the polynya retrievability.
Team:
PhD student Carmen Hau-Man Wong, since September 2023;
Myself as main supervisor, and for the first two objectives;
Luisa Ickes from Chalmers as co-supervisor, and for the third objective;
Lu Zhou, former postdoc in this group, as co-supervisor.
Collaboration with Kay Ohshima, Hokkaido University, Japan.
Publications:
C. Heuzé, J. Rheinlaender, T. Tian, and C.H.M. Wong (2026) Winter Arctic polynyas in CMIP6 models, The Cryosphere / EGUsphere, under review. Doi of preprint coming soon.
C.H.M. Wong, C. Heuzé, L. Ickes, and L. Zhou (2026) The spatio-temporal variability, trends, and drivers of winter Arctic polynyas, Journal of Climate, in press, doi of preprint: 10.31223/X5VJ0P
C. Heuzé and C.H.M. Wong (2025) Automatic detection of Arctic polynyas using hybrid supervised and unsupervised deep learning, The Cryosphere, vol 19, pp 6043–6058, doi:10.5194/tc-19-6043-2025.
C. Heuzé and A. Jahn (2024) The first ice-free day in the Arctic Ocean could occur before 2030, Nature Communications, vol 15, pp 10101, doi:10.1038/s41467-024-54508-3
Conference, seminar, or outreach presentations related to this project:
23-27 February 2026, AGU’s Ocean Science Meeting OSM, Glasgow (UK) Céline Heuzé, talk: Arctic polynyas: Improved detection, Trends in observations, and CMIP6 representation Carmen Hau Man Wong, poster: Impacts of a Heterogeneous Spring Sea Ice Cover on Arctic Cloud Formation
2 Oct 2025, Geoseminar, GU (Sweden) Céline Heuzé, talk: When the sea ice opens (polynyas)
16-17 Sept 2025, MPI 50-year anniversary CELLO symposium, Hamburg (Germany) Céline Heuzé, keynote talk: When the sea ice opens
23-27 June 2025, Living Planet Symposium, Vienna (Austria) Carmen Hau Man Wong, poster: Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Winter Arctic Polynyas (1978-2023)
18 May – 7 June 2025, KITP The Physics of the Changing Polar Climate, UCSB (US) Céline Heuzé, invited talk: From the Arctic’s Beaufort Gyre to Antarctic Bottom Water
12-16 May 2025, AMS Denver Summit, Denver (US) – Carmen Hau Man Wong, talk: Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Winter Arctic Polynyas (1978-2023)
26-27 March 2025, Svenska Rymdforskares Samarbetsgrupp meeting, Kiruna (Sweden) Céline Heuzé, invited talk: Monitoring Arctic (and Antarctic) sea ice from space
15-17 May 2024, Swedish Climate Symposium, Norrköping (Sweden) Carmen Hau Man Wong, poster: Spatial and temporal distribution of all Arctic Polynyas since 1979
15-19 April 2024, EGU24, Vienna (Austria) Carmen Hau Man Wong, poster: Spatial and temporal distribution of all Arctic Polynyas since 1979
Project “Would the Northern European Enclosure Dam really protect Sweden from sea level rise? (NEEDS)”, funded by FORMAS grant 2020-00982 Ca 4 million SEK; I am the PI. Co-I is Heather Reese, Department of Earth Sciences, GU. January 2021 – December 2025
The aim of the project was to determine what causes flooding in Sweden: remote effects that could be blocked out by distant sea walls, or local effects such as precipitation or tides. The remaining aim of the project is to use the knowledge about the causes to predict future sea level. We are using a combination of all data sources (in-situ, remote sensing, models) that we analyse with help from Machine and Deep Learning. Not that although the project is no longer funded, a postdoc is still employed by it and we are collaborating with SMHI to address remaining research questions.
Team:
Postdoc Zhi-Bo Li, since September 2024;
Postdoc Lea Poropat, June 2021 – September 2023;
Myself, only for supervision at first, now working 100% of my research time on this project since November 2024;
Master’s student Linn Carlstedt, May 2022 – March 2023 (thesis completed with honours);
Master’s student David Ek, April 2021 – April 2022 (thesis completed with honours);
Heather Reese;
Started in 2025: Collaboration with Magnus Hieronymus, Dorothée Vallot, and Linn Carlstedt at SMHI for the sea level projections;
Collaboration with Dani Jones and Scott Hosking from the British Antarctic Survey AI Lab.
Publications:
Li et al. [preprint] in which we quantify trends in the winds that we found to be most responsible for sea level extremes, expanding to the entire northern hemisphere.
Heuzé et al. (2025) in which we determined the drivers of extreme sea level events around the wider North Sea – Baltic region, using LSTM and Random Forest.
Poropat et al. (2024) in which we use Gaussian mixture modelling to determine the areas of the wider North Sea whose sea level covary, at the monthly time scale.
Linn Carlstedt’s Master’s thesis, in which she determined the drivers of hourly sea level variability in the North Sea in general and on the Dutch coast in particular, using an LSTM network.
David Ek’s Master’s thesis, in which he determined the drivers of monthly sea level variability in the small but extremely complex “belt” region between Denmark and Sweden, using traditional statistics and machine learning.
Conference, seminar, or outreach presentations related to this project:
22 Sept 2025, “Hvordan kan Machine Learning bidrage til styrket klimatilpasning i Danmark?” – DMI webinar for the Danish government Lea Poropat, talk: Finding drivers of sea level variability with machine learning
18 Sept 2025, SMHI professor inauguration, Göteborg (Sweden) Céline Heuzé, panel discussion
13 May 2025, Climate AI Nordics workshop, Göteborg (Sweden) Céline Heuzé, poster: Drivers of high frequency extreme sea level around Northern Europe – Synergies between recurrent neural networks and Random Forest
27 April – 2 May 2025, EGU25, Vienna (Austria) Zhi-Bo Li, poster: Is Europe becoming stormier? Extratropical cyclone clustering over the last century
8-12 May 2023 Liège Colloquium on Ocean Dynamics – Machine Learning and Data Analysis in Oceanography, Liège (Belgium) Lea Poropat, talk: Finding drivers of sea level variability with neural networks
24-28 April 2023, EGU23, Vienna, (Austria) Lea Poropat, talk: Finding regions of similar sea level variability with the help of a Gaussian Mixture Model Linn Carlstedt, talk: Drivers of sea level variability using neural networks
Vetenskapsfestivalen 2023, Göteborg (Sweden) Lea Poropat, outreach presentation: Investigating sea level changes: Insights from Artificial Intelligence (Soapbox Science) Lea Poropat, outreach presentation: Studying sea level changes with the help of artificial intelligence (Science Roulette)
10 March 2023, RCG seminar, Göteborg Universitet (Sweden) Lea Poropat, seminar: Unsupervised classification of the ocean based on satellite altimetry data
Forskar Fredag 2022, Dalenium Science Centre (Sweden) Lea Poropat, outreach presentation: The sea and the climate – What drives the sea level variability along the Swedish coast?
23-27 May 2022, EGU22, Vienna (Austria) Lea Poropat, talk: Drivers of sea level variability in the Baltic/North/Nordic Seas using neural network David Ek, talk: Different drivers of Sea Level Variability at the North – Baltic Sea transition
16-18 May 2022, Swedish Climate Symposium, Norrköping (Sweden) Lea Poropat, talk: Drivers of sea level variability along the Swedish coast using neural networks
3 February 2022, GEO seminar, Göteborgs Universitet (Sweden) Lea Poropat, seminar: What drives regional sea level variability? Using neural networks o predict low-frequency sea level variations
NERC Open CASE, number 1093171, awarded to Karen Heywood. = My PhD “Antarctic Bottom Water in CMIP5 models: characteristics, formation, evolution” October 2011 to March 2015. Supervisors: Karen Heywood and David Stevens (UEA), and Jeff Ridley (UK MetOffice)
Determined the causes for these biases: impossibility to export shelf water due to the mixing scheme, and open ocean deep convection in the Weddell Polynya (Heuzé et al., 2013 ; PhD thesis)
Quantified the consequence of these biases on climate change projections (Heuzé et al., 2015a)
Found a numerical solution to suppress the unrealistic formation process (Heuzé et al., 2015b)
Project “Is Greenland meltwater going to stop the Atlantic overturning circulation?”, funded by VINNMER-Marie Curie, dnr 2015-01487. Ca 2.5 million SEK; I was the PI. Started in July 2015, finished in June 2018.
Team:
Myself, as postdoc researcher;
Anna Wåhlin, Gothenburg University, and Helen Johnson, Oxford University, as mentors / hosts;
Master student Lovisa-Waldrop Bergman.
Outcomes and publications:
Collected hydrographic data and produced the first map the path of meltwaters from Petermann Glacier out of its fjord into Nares Strait (Heuzé et al., 2017a)
Modelled the oceanic circulation of Nares Strait and determined its sensitivity to initial conditions (Master’s student’s work)
Quantified biases in full depth water properties and deep water formation processes in the North Atlantic in CMIP5 models (Heuzé 2017)
Project “Warm oceanic Inflows for Near-real time Detection Of Weddell polynya from Space (WINDOWS)”, funded by Rymdstyrelsen grant 164/18 Ca 4.5 million SEK; I was the PI. Started in January 2019, finished in March 2023.
The aim was to detect where the winter sea ice is going to open and why, by combining passive and active satellite remote sensing. We were using the Weddell Polynya in the Southern Ocean as test subject. In January 2023 I received new funding to continue this work, this time looking at polynyas in the Arctic Ocean. More information on this new project here.
Team:
Myself until February 2021;
Postdoc Lu Zhou, April 2021 – March 2024;
Master’s student Jakob Gunnarsson, April 2022 – March 2023 (thesis completed with honours);
Postdoc Adriano Lemos, January-August 2020;
PhD student Martin Mohrmann, co-supervised with S. Swart and H. Ploug from the Marine Sciences Department, Gothenburg University, January 2018 – May 2022.
Publications:
Quantification of the effect of these polynyas, focussing on the heat and moisture fluxes and sea ice production of the recent Maud Rise polynyas (Zhou et al., 2023).
Jakob Gunnarsson’s Master’s thesis explored potential impacts of the presence of an open ocean polynya on coastal polynyas. And discovered that models have large internal variabilities.
(Dr) Martin Mohrmann’s PhD thesis “Ocean mixing and polynyas at Maud Rise, Weddell Sea”
Determination of local oceanographic effects that could explain why polynya formation is predominantly at one very specific location (Mohrmann et al., 2022).
Detection of upcoming sea ice opening 4 months ahead, along with determination of the dynamics and thermodynamics forcings causing the opening (Zhou et al., 2022).
Conference, seminar, or outreach presentations related to this project:
24-28 April 2023, EGU23, Vienna, (Austria) Jakob Gunnarsson, talk: The Atmospheric effects of Southern Ocean open-ocean polynyas onto coastal polynyas in EC-Earth3
17-24 February 2023, Arctic Science Summit Week, Vienna (Austria) Lu Zhou, talk: Snow and Ocean roles in Arctic and Antarctic sea ice mass balances
7 June 2022, SOCHIC workshop, Göteborg (Sweden) Céline Heuzé, talk: “Southern Ocean ventilation in CMIP6 models Lu Zhou, talk: Preconditioning and flux within the Weddell Sea polynya
23-27 May 2022, EGU22, Vienna (Austria) Martin Mohrmann, talk: Observed mixing at the flanks of Maud Rise in the Weddell Sea Lu Zhou, talk: Sea ice thickness and production in Weddell Sea polynyas
23-27 May 2022, ESA Living Planet Symposium, Bonn (Germany) Lu Zhou, poster: Effects of winter snow properties on L-band satellite observations in the Weddell Sea
16-18 May 2022, Swedish Climate Symposium, Norrköping (Sweden) Lu Zhou, talk: Sea ice thickness and production in Weddell Sea polynyas
10-12 May 2021, Weddell Sea Marine Protected Area Phase 2 (WSMPA Phase 2) Scientific Progress Workshop Céline Heuzé, attendance and active participation in discussions
23 February 2021, Havs och Vattenmyndighet (online), Digitalt symposium om Antarktis ekosystem i ett förändrat klimat Céline Heuzé, requested talk: Antarktis klimatförändringar i ett satellitperpektiv
4-8 May 2020, EGU20 (online) Céline Heuzé, talk: Imminent re-opening of the Weddell Polynya detectable days ahead by spaceborne infrared Martin Mohrmann, talk: Polynya area and frequency in the Weddell Sea in CMIP6 climate models Adriano Lemos, talk: Early detection of the Weddell polynya re-opening using SAR imagery
17-22 March 2019, Gordon Research Conference on Polar Marine Science, Lucca (Italy) Céline Heuzé, poster: Could we have predicted the return of the Weddell Polynya?
18 Jan 2019, RCG seminar, Göteborg, Sweden Céline Heuzé, seminar: Sea ice or cloud? Automatic cloud filtering in polar regions
Project “Why is the deep Arctic Ocean Warming? (WAOW)”, funded by Vetenskapsrådet grant 2018-03859 Ca 4 million SEK; I was the PI (single applicant; early career grant) Started in January 2019, finished in December 2024
The aim of this project was to finally determine the path and variability of the deep waters of the Arctic Ocean, from 2000 m to the sea floor, using notably data that we collected during the international MOSAiC expedition (2020) and the Synoptic Arctic Survey (2021). But covid19 happened, so data releases were delayed. And Russia invaded Ukraine so we had to stop collaborating with Russian researchers, so we lost any possibility to study the dense water overflows. At least the climate models did not disappoint.
Team:
Myself – this research area is my primary focus;
PhD student Salar Karam, of which I was the main supervisor, October 2019 to June 2024. He successfully defended in June 2024.
Olli Huhn and Maren Walters from Uni Bremen, for expertise with CFC analysis;
Collaboration with the wider MOSAiC Team Ocean and the Swedish Synoptic Arctic Survey consortium.
Description paper of our MOSAiC transient tracer data sets (Heuzé et al., 2024).
Quantification of water mass exchanges between the two deep Arctic basins, highlighting the role and ubiquity of deep eddies, led by my PhD student Salar Karam (Karam et al., 2023) .
Assessment of biases in the modelled Arctic Ocean (Heuzé et al., 2023) and consequences on predictions of its changes (Muilwijk et al., 2023, Heuzé and Liu, 2024). The release of these studies generated a lot of media attention from 13th March 2023.
Review of the state of the Arctic Ocean, highlighting changes in the freshwater cycle and which components of the climate system are still too poorly observed to conclude (Solomon et al., 2021).
Conference, seminar, or outreach presentations related to this project:
15-17 May 2024, Swedish Climate Symposium, Norrköping (Sweden) Céline Heuzé, talk: No emergence of deep convection in the Arctic Ocean across CMIP6 models
15-19 April 2024, EGU24, Vienna (Austria) Céline Heuzé, convenor of session OS1.1 “Changes in the Arctic Ocean, sea ice and subarctic seas systems: Observations, Models and Perspectives” and poster: No emergence of deep convection in the Arctic Ocean across CMIP6 models
26-29 February 2024, International MOSAiC Science Conference, Potsdam (Germany) Céline Heuzé, Keynote speaker: Ocean overview and convenor of the TRACERS session and talk: A year of transient tracers (chlorofluorocarbon 12 and sulfur hexafluoride), noble gases (helium and neon), and tritium in the Arctic Ocean from the MOSAiC expedition (2019–2020)
18-23 February 2024, Ocean Sciences Meeting, New Orleans (US) Salar Karam, talk: Continued warming of deep waters in Fram Strait
7 February 2024, UNIS (Svalbard) Céline Heuzé, seminar: The deep Arctic Ocean – not as isolated as you’d think
12 December 2023, Sea and Society Day, Göteborg (Sweden) Céline Heuzé, invited talk: The changing Arctic Ocean
6-9 November 2023, Nansen Legacy international conference, Tromsø (Norway) Céline Heuzé, convenor of the plenary session “The Future Arctic Ocean” and poster: Can we even predict the future Arctic Ocean?
3-4 October 2023, “Science Opportunities on Polar Connect” workshop, Oslo (Norway) Céline Heuzé, invited talk: Key challenges in Arctic oceanography
28-29 September 2023, “CMIP6 models in the Arctic” workshop, Bergen (Norway) Céline Heuzé, invited talk: The Arctic Ocean in CMIP6 models: historical biases
11-20 July 2023, IUGG Berlin (Germany); Céline Heuzé, keynote talk: Modelling the Arctic Ocean – a non-exhaustive review
5 May 2023, University of East Anglia (UK) Salar Karam, invited seminar: Critically important, yet forgotten: thin and transient meltwater layers and false bottoms in the Arctic sea ice pack
4 May 2023, Sweco Göteborg (Sweden) Céline Heuzé, invited talk: Varför borde *du* bry dig om Arktis?
18 April 2023, University of Bremen (Germany) Céline Heuzé, seminar: The deep Arctic Ocean – not as isolated as you’d think
30 March 2023, University of Gothenburg (Sweden) Salar Karam, seminar: Deep ocean dynamics in the Arctic Ocean
5-10 March 2023, Gordon Research Conference on Polar Marine Science, Ventura (US) Salar Karam, poster: Bottom temperature data observed from autonomous buoys deployed during MOSAiC
13-17 February 2023, MOSAiC Science Conference, Boulder (US) Salar Karam, poster: Bottom temperature data observed from autonomous buoys deployed during MOSAiC
23-27 May 2022, EGU22, Vienna (Austria) Céline Heuzé, award lecture: Global deep waters: what we know, what we know we do not know, and what we should do about it Céline Heuzé, talk: Large biases in hydrography and circulation of the Arctic Ocean in CMIP6 models
16-18 May 2022, Swedish Climate Symposium, Norrköping (Sweden) Céline Heuzé, talk: Large biases in hydrography and circulation of the Arctic Ocean in CMIP6 models
25-29 April 2022, International MOSAiC Science Conference/Workshop, Potsdam (Germany) Céline Heuzé, plenary talk: OCEAN overview Céline Heuzé, talk: Water mass history from transient tracers to map species movements Salar Karam, poster: Observations of a Freshwater Lens during MOSAiC
28 October 2021, Geoseminar, Göteborgs University (Sweden) Céline Heuzé, seminar: Why is the Arctic Ocean so wrong in CMIP models?
20 October 2021, MOSAiC’s Team ECO workshop (online) Céline Heuzé, requested talk: Physical Oceanography during MOSAiC: first results
12 October 2021, ArcTrain annual meeting (online) Céline Heuzé, invited lecture: Why is the Arctic so wrong in CMIP models?
19-30 April 2021, EGU21 (online) Salar Karam, talk: Recirculation of Canadian Basin Deep Water in the Amundsen Basin
2 February 2021, Arctic Frontiers (online) Céline Heuzé, keynote presentation: The first full-depth hydrography of the Eurasian basin
9 December 2020, APECS Sweden mini-conference, Göteborg (Sweden) Salar Karam, talk: Conducting field work during a pandemic
1 October 2020, US IARPC (online) Céline Heuzé, requested talk: Physical Oceanography during MOSAiC – an overview
24 January 2020, Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory (online) Céline Heuzé, seminar: Deep waters: what we know, what we do not know and what we are doing about it
22 October 2019, Fonster mot naturvetenskap, Göteborg (Sweden) Céline Heuzé, talk: Livet ombord en isbrytare… utan internet
4 October 2019, University of East Anglia (UK) Céline Heuzé, seminar: Deep waters: what we know, what we do not know and what we are doing about it. (a.k.a. “Big Boats and Big Data”)
Deep ocean | Deep learning 