An external view of the Met Office building at night.

Dr Chongyuan Mao

Areas of expertise

  • Near real time analyses of SST
  • Validation of SST products

Current activities

Chongyuan is an Ocean Scientist in the Marine Observations Processing and Analysis team. She works on the maintenance and development of the Operational Sea Surface Temperature and Sea Ice Analysis (OSTIA) system, including testing new observation data and assessing the data assimilation scheme (NEMOVAR) in the system. Her research activities also include the validation of OSTIA diurnal analysis using Argo near-surface temperature (NST) profiles.

Career background

Chongyuan joined the Ocean Forecasting Research and Development group at the Met Office in September 2014. Prior to this she completed a PhD at the University of Southampton, investigating the physical mechanisms of the sea surface temperature (SST) annual cycle and its influence of the phytoplankton blooms in the North Atlantic. During her PhD, Chongyuan visited the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and worked on a project that investigates the circulation and transformation of Pacific winter water in the Chukchi Sea. Chongyuan also participated in a scientific cruise to the Beaufort Sea, measuring the physical properties of the winter water in the Chukchi Sea. Prior to her PhD, Chongyuan studied Marine Science at the Ocean University of China.