Oceanographic research activities are focusing on ocean interdisciplinary numerical modelling aimed at understanding the dynamics and the spatio-temporal variability of ocean physical processes, as well as the marine ecosystem dynamics and its coupling with ocean physics.
The main research themes are the following:
- Time series analysis of interdisciplinary oceanographic data for the coastal and the offshore areas, to describe and understand the ocean climate variability in the Mediterranean and the global ocean.
- Time series analysis of atmospheric data, with particular reference to the air-sea interactions (heat and momentum exchange).
- Development of numerical models to simulate the Mediterranean and Adriatic Sea circulation.
- Development of relocatable numerical models to study mesoscale and submesoscale processes.
- Numerical modeling of the marine ecosystem and implementation in the Adriatic and the Mediterranean Sea.
- Development of numerical models simulating transport and fate of marine pollutants.
The group is active at DIFA and at the SINCEM laboratory located in the Ravenna Campus. There are close interactions with the Bologna INGV group, in the field of operational oceanography of the Mediterranean Sea and also with the Bologna and Lecce sections of the Centro EuroMediterraneo per i Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC). The members of the group are active in several EU research projects aimed to develop the COPERNICUS Mediterranean Sea marine Service (http://marine.copernicus.eu/).
Group members are also coordinating research units in the EU FP7 Projects EMODNET-MEDSEA (European Marine Observation and Data Network - Mediterranean Sea), PERSEUS (Policy Oriented Environmental Research in the Southern European Seas), the MIUR-PON project TESSA (Technologies for the Situational Sea Awareness) and the H2020 project AtlantOS (Optimizing and Enhancing the Integrated Atlantic Ocean Observing System). They coordinate the development of the Biogeochemical Flux Model (BFM, http://bfm-community.eu/) and contribute to the development of a numerical oil fate and transport model. (http://medslikii.bo.ingv.it/).