Inria Chile Talks - “Use of the CROCO model in numerical modeling of the ocean in Chile: Progress and perspectives”

The CROCO model is the most widely used numerical ocean model in Chile, with a local community that has grown thanks to courses offered by the University of Concepción since 2009. Chile has become a regional centre for teaching the model, with courses also in Peru, Uruguay and Colombia. CROCO is used operationally by IFOP for forecasting the spread of infections and contaminants in southern Chile, and has been the basis for the creation of service companies. Collaboration with French institutions (INRIA, CNRES, IRD) has allowed improvements in codes and features such as data assimilation. Current challenges include the impact of biogeochemical modules on oxygen minimum events, the influence of glaciers on freshwater discharges and the operationalization of data assimilation in forecasts.

Andrés Sepúlveda has a Bachelor of Science with a major in Physics from the University of Chile and a PhD in Physical Oceanography from Old Dominion University, USA. In addition, he was a postdoctoral fellow of the Andes Foundation at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Since 2005, he has worked as an academic in the Department of Geophysics of the University of Concepció