Model codes Peer-reviewed articles Conference abstracts CV Contact

Erik van Sebille, physical oceanographer at UNSW

    E.vanSebille@unsw.edu.au | +61 2 9385 7196 | CCRC, The University of New South Wales, Sydney.
  • Investigating the time scales and pathways of the global ocean circulation using Lagrangian trajectories, with particular interest in inter-ocean exchanges.
  • Supervising the PhD project of Shirley Qin (started July 2012), the practicum exchange project of Jesús Peña Izquierdo (visiting August - March 2013) and the postdoc research project of Paulina Cetina Heredia (started March 2013).
  • Teaching Physical Oceanography / Oceanographic processes (MSCI3001 / MSCI5004).

Scientific interests (or click on the wordle on the left for a high-res version)

  • The use of (numerical) Lagrangian trajectories for global ocean pathway analysis.
  • Agulhas leakage, Tasman leakage, the Southern Ocean and the global overturning circulation.
  • Ocean connectivity from a physical and biological perspective.

Latest videos

Interview with UNSWtv on the formation of the great ocean garbage patches
[ abstract | pdf ].

Tracer website

Adrift.org.au is an educatio- nal website on ocean surface circulation and the pathways of marine plastic.

The CMS code

CMS logo
The CMS is open-source code to advect Lagrangian particles in any velocity field
[ abstract | pdf ].

Mapped publications

mapped publications
An interactive map showing the main areas of interest for all of the peer-reviewed publications is available here.

Peer-reviewed articles: published and accepted

  1. Van Sebille, Spence, Mazloff, England, Rintoul, and Saenko (2013), Geophys. Res. Lett., in press
    Abyssal connections of Antarctic Bottom Water in a Southern Ocean State Estimate [ abstract | pdf ]
  1. Paris, Helgers, Van Sebille, and Srinivasan (2013), Environ. Modell. Softw., 42, 47-54.
    Connectivity Modeling System: A probabilistic modeling tool for the multi-scale tracking of biotic and abiotic variability in the ocean
    [ abstract | pdf ]
  1. Meinen, Johns, Garzoli, Van Sebille, Rayner, Kanzow, and Baringer (2013), Deep Sea Res. II, 85, 154-168.
    Variability of the Deep Western Boundary Current at 26.5°N during 2004-2009 [ abstract | pdf ]
  1. Van Sebille, England, and Froyland (2012), Environ. Res. Lett., 7, 044040.
    Origin, dynamics and evolution of ocean garbage patches from observed surface drifters [ abstract | pdf ]
  1. Van Sebille, Johns, and Beal (2012), J. Geophys. Res., 117, C05037.
    Does the vorticity flux from Agulhas rings control the zonal pathway of NADW across the South Atlantic? [ abstract | pdf ]
  1. Weijer, Sloyan, Maltrud, Jeffery, Hecht, Hartin, Van Sebille, Wainer, and Landrum (2012), J. Clim., 25, 2652-2675.
    The Southern Ocean and its climate in CCSM4 [ abstract | pdf ]
  1. Van Sebille, England, Zika, and Sloyan (2012), Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L06601.
    Tasman leakage in a fine-resolution ocean model [ abstract | pdf ]
  1. Van Sebille, Baringer, Johns, Meinen, Beal, De Jong, and Van Aken (2011), J. Geophys. Res., 116, C12027.
    Propagation pathways of classical Labrador Sea Water from its source region to 26°N [ abstract | pdf ]
  1. Lee, Park, Van Sebille, Baringer, Wang, Enfield, Yeager, and Kirtman (2011), Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L17607.
    What caused the significant increase in Atlantic Ocean heat content since the mid-20th century? [ abstract | pdf ]
  1. Van Sebille, Beal, and Johns (2011), J. Phys. Oceanogr., 41, 1026-1034.
    Advective time scales of Agulhas leakage to the North Atlantic in surface drifter observations and the 3D OFES model [ abstract | pdf ]
  1. Van Sebille, Kamenkovich, and Willis (2011), Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L02606.
    Quasi-zonal jets in 3-D Argo data of the northeast Atlantic [ abstract | pdf ]
  1. Van Sebille, Beal, and Biastoch (2010), Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L09610.
    Sea surface slope as a proxy for Agulhas Current strength [ abstract | pdf ]
  1. Van Sebille, Van Leeuwen, Biastoch, and De Ruijter (2010), Deep Sea Res. I, 57, 319-327.
    Flux comparison of Eulerian and Lagrangian estimates of Agulhas leakage: A case study using a numerical model [ abstract | pdf ]
  1. Van Sebille, Van Leeuwen, Biastoch, and De Ruijter (2010), J. Geophys. Res., 115, C03010.
    On the fast decay of Agulhas rings [ abstract | pdf ]
  1. Van Sebille, Barron, Biastoch, Van Leeuwen, Vossepoel, and De Ruijter (2009), Ocean Sci., 5, 511-521.
    Relating Agulhas leakage to the Agulhas Current retroflection location [ abstract | pdf ]
  1. Van Sebille, Van Leeuwen, Biastoch, Barron, and De Ruijter (2009), Ocean Model., 29, 269-276.
    Lagrangian validation of numerical drifter trajectories using drifting buoys: Application to the Agulhas system [ abstract | pdf ]
  1. Van Sebille, Biastoch, Van Leeuwen, and De Ruijter (2009), Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L03601.
    A weaker Agulhas Current leads to more Agulhas leakage [ abstract | pdf ]
  1. Van Sebille and Van Leeuwen (2007), J. Phys. Oceanogr., 37, 2305-2315.
    Fast northward energy transfer in the Atlantic due to Agulhas rings [ abstract | pdf ]

Peer-reviewed articles: submitted and under review

  1. Wilkins, Van Sebille, Rintoul, Lauro, and Cavicchioli.
    Advection shapes Southern Ocean microbial assemblages independent of distance and environment effects
  1. Scussolini and Van Sebille.
    Paleo Agulhas Rings enter the subtropical gyre during the penultimate deglaciation
  1. Qin, Van Sebille, and Sen Gupta.
    Impact of temporal resolution on Lagrangian particles in eddy-resolving models
  1. Weijer and Van Sebille.
    Impact of Agulhas Leakage on the Atlantic MOC in the CCSM4 coupled climate model
  1. Den Toom, Dijkstra, Weijer, Hecht, Maltrud, and Van Sebille.
    Sensitivity of a strongly eddying global ocean to North Atlantic freshwater perturbations
  1. Rossi, Van Sebille, Sen Gupta, Garçon, and England.
    Multi-decadal projections of the pathways and dilution of the Fukushima Cesium-137 radioactive plume

Other publications

  1. Van Sebille (2009), PhD dissertation, Utrecht University, 176 pp.
    Assessing Agulhas leakage [ summary | pdf ]
  1. Van Sebille (2007), Master thesis, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Utrecht University, 80 pp.
    Fast response of the Meridional Overturning Circulation to Agulhas Leakage Perturbations [ abstract | pdf ]