Report - Research Stay in Southampton by Evridiki Chrysagi

Text: Evridiki Chrysagi

In November of last year, I had the opportunity to visit Southampton, UK, and spent a month at the National Oceanographic Center (NOC). Upon my arrival, I found myself in the midst of a literal and metaphorical storm. Shortly after reaching Southampton, a severe storm hit the area. My landlord advised me to stay indoors, and my host had to cancel our initial meeting due to closed bridges preventing access to the institute. While the physical storm passed after a few days, I still had to “weather the storm” of proposal writing. With the deadline for the third phase of the TRR approaching in mid-November, I dedicated a significant amount of my time to the proposal writing.

My main host, Alberto Naveira Garabato, a distinguished expert on submesoscales processes and mixing, proved to be not only a brilliant scientist (recently awarded the Fridtjof Nansen Medal) but also a warm and welcoming person. Bieito Fernandez Castro was also a great host, so I really enjoyed working at NOC. We had several meetings to discuss my results, and Alberto was very enthusiastic about my Baltic Sea simulations, saying he now understands why the Baltic is considered an ideal natural laboratory. We plan to write two joint papers: one focusing on the submesoscale instabilities and the vorticity generation above sloping topography, and another one (hopefully) focusing on the generation of submesoscale eddies in the oceanic interior and the lateral exchange of properties between the boundaries and the interior of the ocean. During my research stay, I also had the opportunity to present my work at the physical oceanography seminar at NOC, attend various seminars, and meet and discuss with many people. Exploring Southampton and its surroundings, I visited the local pubs with different groups of colleagues, further enriching my experience.

As the saying goes, “After every storm, the sun always shines”, and indeed, my experience in Southampton was a testament to this. I would therefore like to thank TRR for funding my research visit. It was a unique experience and I would strongly recommend and encourage everyone to seize the opportunity to visit other institutes and universities.