Matthew Mazloff is a researcher in the Oceans and Atmospheres Section at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego. His research focuses on understanding the ocean and earth system by utilizing model-observation syntheses. The estimates of the ocean state produced allows one to address pressing scientific and societal problems. Providing quantitative ocean baselines allows detecting past and future climate shifts, and enables understanding the underlying dynamics controlling the system. Analyses using these state estimates span a broad range of topics including air-sea exchanges, the carbon cycle, the ocean circulation, and the dynamical balances governing this circulation.
Mazloff studies many ocean regions, but has an affinity for the Southern Ocean. He received a B.S. in physics from the University of Vermont. In 2008, Mazloff received his PhD in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) joint program studying the momentum budget of this remote and energetic ocean. He then joined Scripps and continued this line of research, expanding it to include the carbon cycle and ice-ocean interactions in the region. Other regions of study include the California Current System and the Tropical Pacific Ocean.
A primary focus of Mazloff’s efforts is evolving methodologies for data assimilation and mapping. Projecting ocean measurement information makes best use of our observing system. A priority for best exploiting observations is to improve the upper ocean component of models and assimilation software. Including more physical components into the model-observation synthesis is key to this goal. Having a model that assimilates measurements of all ocean scales from surface waves to internal waves to submesoscale to mesoscale to basin scale allows best use of measurements and knowledge of the associated uncertainty structure. Aligned with these goals, Mazloff works in the consortium for Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO), and as such he is a user and developer of the ECCO data assimilation software. These efforts have also been used to aid in observing system design.
(Updated January 2021)
Current Activities and Associations
- Producing a biogeochemical Southern Ocean state estimate (sose.ucsd.edu)
- NASA Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) User Working Group (2020 to present; https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/AboutPodaac)
- Member of the CLIVAR Global Synthesis and Observations Panel (GSOP; 2019 to present; http://www.clivar.org/clivar-panels/gsop)
- Member of the US OCB Biogeochemical-Argo Steering Committee (2017 to present; http://biogeochemical-argo.org/program-origin.php)
- Member of SOOS Southern Ocean Fluxes working group (2017 to present; http://www.soos.aq/activities/capability-wgs/soflux) and Observing System Design working group (2018 to present; http://www.soos.aq/activities/capability-wgs/soflux)
- Member of the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) altimeter Science Definition Team (2012 to present; https://swot.jpl.nasa.gov)
- Member of the consortium for Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO; http://ecco-group.org/)
- Member of the Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling project (SOCCOM; http://soccom.princeton.edu/)
Recent Activities
- Produced a California Coastal Ocean state estimate (sose.ucsd.edu/CASE)
- Member of US CLIVAR/OCB Southern Ocean working group (2012 to 2015)
Postdocs
- Paul Chamberlain, postdoc (2022-)
- Yu Gao, postdoc (2022-)
- Lydia Keppler, postdoc (2022-)
- Angela Kuhn Cordova, postdoc (2022-2023)
- Mara Freilich, postdoc (2021-2023)
- Rui Sun, postdoc (2019-2022)
- Natalie Freeman, postdoc (2017-2020)
- Antoine Hochet, postdoc (2018-2019)
- Isa Rosso, postdoc (2015-2019)
- Jinbo Wang, postdoc (2013-2015)
Students
- Paige Brady, SIO graduate student (2023-present)
- Ellen Davenport, SIO graduate student (2023-present)
- Kayleigh Jones, SIO graduate student (2022-present)
- Gabriela Negrete-García, SIO graduate student (2021-present)
- Youran Li, SIO graduate student (2020-present)
- Alexander Andriatis, SIO graduate student (2019-present)
- Lauren Hoffman, UCSD graduate student (2019-2023)
- Ratnaksha Lele, SIO graduate student (2019-2023)
- Srishti Dasarathy, SIO graduate student (2020-2023)
- Channing Prend, SIO graduate student (2019-2022)
- Luke Kachelein, SIO graduate student (2017-2023)
- Paul Chamberlain, SIO graduate student (2016-2022)
- Deborah Gardner, SIO graduate student (2019-2022)
- Stan Swierczek, UA graduate student (2018-2021)
- Bia Villas Boas, SIO graduate student (2014-2020)
- Veronica Tamsitt, SIO graduate student (2014-2018)
- Jessica Masich, SIO graduate student (2010-2017)
- Uriel Zajaczkovski, SIO graduate student (2009-2017)
- Ellen Briggs, SIO graduate student (2013-2017)
- E. Rachel Bernstein, Univ. of Del. graduate student (2010-2015)
- Ruth Musgrave, SIO graduate student (2009-2015)