Hey-o! I’m Kat, a computational oceanographer and climate scientist.

I am currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Climate, Ocean, and Sea-ice Modeling (COSIM) Team at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). At LANL, I am developing new capabilities within the physical and biogeochemical ocean components of the Department of Energy’s Earth system model, called E3SM, to improve its performance and accuracy. Addtionally, as a part of the Interdisciplinary Research for Arctic Coastal Environments (InteRFACE) project I am running and analyzing Arctic focused Large Eddy Simulations (LES) to better understand the impacts of sea ice loss on mixing and stratification in the Arctic Ocean and validate new higher-order mixing parameterizations. I also run and analyze Arctic focused climate simulations, using E3SM, to better understand the impacts of climate change (increasing sea/land-fast ice loss, the shifting from a benthic to pelagic dominant ocean ecosystem, increased vertical mixing within the ocean surface boundary layer, etc) on the food security/sovereignty of Arctic coastal communities.

Plain Language Summary:
I am currently an oceanographer and climate scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The ocean has the ability to store 60 times more carbon than the atmosphere and is currently absorbing 23% of the carbon dioxide we emit as humans. This makes the ocean a key player in the future severity of extreme weather event (ex. hurricanes), loss of sea-ice, flooding of coastal cities, and loss of ecosystems and habitats. In general, as an oceanographer and climate scientist, I use complex computer models to make preditions of the Earth’s future climate and understand what role the ocean plays in those predictions. More spcifically, I am currently working on understanding how we can better represent the affects of climate change on the Arctic Ocean within our computer models and how these changes will impact the food security/sovereignty of Arctic coastal communities.

To get a more detailed view of my journey, check out the following:

• About Me
• My Projects
• My Publications
• My Outreach
• My Curriculum Vitae (CV)

If you have any questions or want to chat about anything, my email is kat.smith133@gmail.com.