- School of Ocean and Earth Science
- National Oceanography Centre
- University of Southampton
- Waterfront Campus, European Way
- Southampton
- SO14 3ZH
- UK
- +44 (0)23 8059 9482
Kevin Oliver's home page
About me
I am a Lecturer in Physical Oceanography at the University of Southampton/National Oceanography Centre. Much of my recent research focusses on the dynamics of the global meridional overturning circulation (MOC), driven by mechanical energy sources and surface buoyancy forcing, and its influence on atmospheric pCO2. I also have an interest in high-latitude oceanography, particularly dense water formation in the Nordic seas.
I run analytical/box models, earth system models, and global/regional GCMs in my work, and use observations both from the modern ocean and from sediment proxies such as 13C. I am interested in a variety of statistical and numerical techniques, including statistical emulation and inverse modelling.
Prior to September 2009, I was working on a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at the Open University in Milton Keynes, using a model-data approach to test the hypothesis that a dramatically enhanced tidal dissipation during the LGM caused a reorganisation of ocean circulation. Earlier still, I was a sea-going physical oceanographer and modeller at the University of East Anglia, and visitor at the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center in Bergen.
Click here for the Quaternary QUEST Work Package 2 group pages that used to be here (QQUEST members only)
Publications
- peer-reviewed
- PhD thesis
Research interests
the ocean’s meridional overturning circulation (MOC)
- analytical theory
- conceptual and numerical modelling
- decomposition into wind- and thermohaline- components
- the role of the MOC in millennial climate variability
glacial cycles in atmospheric CO2
- Earth system modelling with GENIE
- compiling marine core proxy datasets
- using 13C, Pa/Th and Cd/Ca records to constrain simulations of the last glacial maximum
- using the combined model-data approach to test hypotheses for glacial cycles in atmospheric CO2
the potential energy (PE) budget of the ocean
- measurement of diaypcnal mixing
- diagnosis of PE sources and sinks in models
- the role of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current
- the relationship between PE and the MOC
- the impact of glacial changes in ocean PE
high latitude dense water formation regions
- the dynamics of deep convection in the Greenland Sea
- the heat and freshwater budgets of the “Arctic Mediterranean”
- inverse modelling, using hydrographic, current, and tracer data
- the SF6 Greenland Sea tracer release experiment
k.oliver@[nospam]noc.soton.ac.uk (remove [nospam] from email address)