WHIRLS General Assembly MeetingConference (Invitation Only)
Meeting rooms
Hotel Dockyard
WHIRLS General Assembly Meeting
Including Early Career Scientists Meeting (19/05/2025) and Workshop on robotic platforms (23/05/2025)
20th to 22nd May 2025

Unravelling the impact of ocean fine-scale whirls on our climate and ecosystems
Dear WHIRLS members and collaborators,
We are pleased to announce our first ERC-Synergy project WHIRLS General Assembly (GA) after one year since WHIRLS kicked off. The GA will take place at the Dockyard Hotel in Gothenburg, Sweden.
The GA will provide an in-depth overview of the interdisciplinary science conducted and planed in WHIRLS combining the expertise in ocean observing and modelling.
The core of the WHIRLS GA will be held from 20 - 22 May; and the first two days (20-21/03) will be open to invited guest. These first two days will be about showcasing and discussing emerging research, informing about WHIRLS developments and collaborations, presenting and discussing WHIRLS experimental plan for observations and modelling.
The WHIRLS GA is accompanied by side events, starting with the ice-breaker for the WHIRLS Early Career Scientists (ECS) on Sunday evening, 18 May followed by a day of skill-development workshops such as data visualization, science communication and data management for ECS and interested WHIRLS members on Monday, 19 May. On Friday, 23 May we offer an open workshop on autonomous robotic observations for about half a day.
Registration is now closed. If you have an urgent interest please contact whirls-office@geomar.de
The GA meeting agenda is available below and as a more detailed version available for download (see link at the bottom of the page).
Hotel booking: the venue hotel Dockyard will provide 15% booking discount if you name the following code: 200525MARI. To get the booking discount you have to call (+46 (0) 31 3204223) or email (dockyard@olavthon.se) the hotel.
Below please find a document on how to travel as sustainable as possible to Gothenburg.
On behalf of the WHIRLS team
Sebastiaan Swart (Univ. Gothenburg)
Arne Biastoch (GEOMAR, Kiel)
Sabrina Speich (ENS, Paris)
Sarah Fawcett (Uni. Cape Town)
About WHIRLS
Fine-scale ocean dynamics play an important role in the exchange of heat and carbon between the ocean and the atmosphere. They influence the ocean’s ability to mitigate climate change, as well as how the ocean is affected by climate change. Funded by the European Research Council (ERC), the WHIRLS project zooms in on such fine-scale processes and explores their impact on climate, marine biogeochemistry and biodiversity. Physical oceanographers with specialisation in modelling and observations and biogeochemists from Germany, France, Sweden and South Africa work together to improve our understanding of the ocean’s fine scale, and our ability to predict future changes in our ocean and climate.

Directions
Signe's meeting room at
Hotel Dockyard
Skeppet Ärens Veg 23
42 671 Västra Frölunda
Sweden
Agenda
times given are Central European Summer Time (CEST)
online meeting link: https://gu-se.zoom.us/my/sswart
Main WHIRLS GA Days
Monday, 19th May
1650 Tour and WHIRLS Ice-Breaker - meeting at Dockyard Hotel lobby
Tuesday, 20th May Dockyard Hotel, Nya Varvet with online connections
0830 - 0900 Registration and coffee mingle - Dockyard hotel
0900 - 0930 Welcome
0930 - 1000 New faces of the WHIRLS team
1000 - 1045 WHIRLS - first-year developments and implementation
1045 - 1115 Coffee Break
1115 - 1200 WHIRLS - first-year developments and implementation - continuation
1200 - 1245 Scientific presentations
Theme 1: Ocean circulation and vertical processes
Solange Coadou: Resolving Sharper Fronts of the Agulhas Current using SWOT
Altimetry
Leon Mock: Quantifying the role of the submesoscale in the decay of Agulhas Rings
1245 - 1400 LUNCH break
1400 - 1430 Guest speaker - Abigale Wyatt: Evaluation of 1D thorium export models around
dynamic physical structures like eddies and fronts
1430 - 1500 Coffee Break
1500 - 1615 Theme 1: Ocean circulation and vertical processes - continuation
Elisa Carli: SWOT's new observational capacity at surface fine scales enables the
reconstruction of enhanced vertical dynamics
Rene Schubert: Submesoscale dynamics in the Agulhas region from ocean
simulations and SWOT
Mariana Lage: Turbulence variability in the surface mixed layer
Theme 1: Discussion
1630 onwards Network-Dinner (Archipelago kayak and dinner on islands)r doctoral researchers and p
Wednesday, 21st May Dockyard Hotel, Nya Varvet with online connections
0730 - 0830 Fun Run (5 km)
0900 - 1045 Theme 2: Biogeochemical cycles
Renske Koets: Observed ventilation pathways in the Cape Basin using oxygen and
particle tracers
Olivia Dawson: Investigating incidences of nitrate supply using SUNA sensor data
from a glider and nitrate isotope ratio
Calvin Swart: Nitrogen supply and cycling in the Agulhas Current: insights from high-
resolution isotope data
Tanya Marshall & Emma Fahraeus: Nitrate data from the Agulhas Retroflection, what
can we learn?
Theme 2: Discussion
1045 - 1115 Coffee Break
1115 - 1230 Theme 3: Air-sea interactions of heat and carbon
Johan Edholm: The Uncrewed Advantage? Assessing USV capability in the Cape
Basin
Gonzalo Ruiz: Drivers of air-sea CO2 fluxes in the Cape Basin
Marcel du Plessis: The impact of storms on seasonal warming
1230 - 1400 LUNCH
1400 - 1430 SA Partner presentation: Tarron Lamont: Ongoing DFFE Physical Oceanography
research and monitoring in the WHIRLS focus area
1430 - 1600 Observational strategies & plans - invitation for any collaborators to briefly present
any info or plan
Coffee Break during discussion
1600 - 1730 Modelling strategies/progress - invitation for any collaborators to briefly present
any info or plan
1900 - Beach braai (BBQ) near Dockyard Hotel
Thursday, 22nd May Dockyard Hotel, Nya Varvet with online connections
0900 - 1000 Report about the ECS work and actions in WHIRLS
1000 - 1015 Focus groups idea (Demo and discussion about focus groups dealing with WHIRLS
scientific questions and methods framing)
1015 - 1045 Capacity sharing, mobility and training
1045 - 1115 Coffee Break
1115 - 1200 WHIRLS Data Management
1200 - 1230 WHIRLS project management, engagement & communication issues
1230 - 1300 Plans for the coming year, final discussion, next steps
1300 - 1430 Lunch including tour on RV Skagerak
1430 - 1700 OMC Meeting (closed meeting)
WHIRLS GA Side Events
Sunday, 18th May WHIRLS Ice-Breaker
1700 Ice-Breaker for WHIRLS ECS / Drinks and finger food at Johans placea
Monday, 19th May Korallrevet Room, Natrium building, Faculty of Science, University of Gothenburg
(Medicinaregatan 7B, 41390 Gothenburg)
0830 - 0900 Welcome
0900 - 1200 'Visualize your science' workshop
1230 - 1400 Lunch and networking at Wallenberg Centre
1400 - 1530 Data Management workshop: 'Brick by brick - Building rich metadata for data
publications'
Friday, 23rd May. at Dockyard Hotel and VOTO
0900 - 1300 Workschop on ocean robotic platforms / Breaks are included
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.