4 February 2026 | 13:00 - 14:00
Dr. Xinyue Li (Max Panck Institute for Meterorology) will give this seminar, organized by the ELI-C department.
Dr. Xinyue Li is a Postdoctoral Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M) in Hamburg. She earned her PhD from the Alfred Wegener Institute/University of Bremen, working on high-resolution ocean modeling and ocean dynamics. Her research focuses on polar mesoscale eddies and their climate impact, using eddy-resolving and kilometer-scale simulations.
Ocean eddies play a critical role in climate and marine life, yet their future evolution is still uncertain, particularly in polar regions where sea ice, stratification, and winds strongly modulate eddy dynamics. In the rapidly warming Arctic, most existing climate models cannot resolve mesoscale eddies. By employing next-generation global sea ice–ocean model with kilometre-scale horizontal resolution in the Arctic, we show a pronounced intensification of upper-ocean eddy activity in a warmer world, with eddy kinetic energy increasing substantially due to enhanced baroclinic instability. Furthermore, in the Southern Ocean, we reveal how mesoscale eddies shape the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and regulate Southern Ocean heat uptake, highlighting why representing polar eddy dynamics is crucial for understanding future changes in circulation, sea ice, and climate impacts on ecosystems.