Ashneel Chandra

Ashneel Chandra

BSc (Mathematics/Physics), University of the South Pacific

MSc (Physics), University of the South Pacific

Ashneel is currently a PhD Candidate at the Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen, exploring tropical intra-seasonal variability with Professor Noel Keenlyside. He is also an affiliated researcher on the OCEANSTATES project as well as the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research. His masters research explored tropical cyclones–ocean interactions as well as using lightning as a proxy for predicting tropical cyclone rapid intensification.

Ashneel’s PhD position is the result of a joint commitment between UiB and the University of the South Pacific (USP) that was initiated during the United Nations Ocean Conference in 2017 to focus on ambitious research and training programme on oceans and climate change.This resulted in the creation of PhD positions, one each at Bergen (UiB) and Laucala (USP). The Bergen PhD position was taken up by Ashneel. Prior to taking up this PhD position, Ashneel was employed at USP as a Teaching Assistant in Physics.

The PhD work of Ashneel is on trying to understand the physical processes driving changes of heat in the upper ocean on timescales ranging from 1 to 3 months (subseasonal to seasonal timescales) with the help of observations and models. What are the physical processes driving changes of upper ocean heat content in the tropics? How much impact can oceanic waves observed at the equator have on the atmosphere? Can these equatorial oceanic waves contribute to extending predictability of weather? These are some questions Ashneel is trying to investigate in his PhD. In addition, Ashneel looks forward to contributing to the OceanStates project with his ongoing collaboration on tropical cyclone research with USP.