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Odilon Joel Houndegnonto

Photo of Odilon Houndegnonto

Address:

4800 Oak Grove Drive

M/S 300-323

Pasadena, CA 91109

Curriculum Vitae:

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Website:

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Member of:

Ocean Circulation And Air Sea Interaction

JPL Postdoctoral Fellow

Employed By

Caltech/JPL

Biography

Odilon J. Houndegnonto is a Physical Oceanographer in the Ocean Circulation and Air-Sea Interaction group at JPL. He is working on SASSIE project, a NASA’s experiment focused on understanding the dynamics and impacts of near-surface salinity anomalies and stratification generated by melting sea ice in the Arctic Ocean (Beaufort and Chukchie seas). His research at JPL focuses on quantifying the 3D structure of near-surface stratification anomalies generated by melting sea ice (summer ice retreat), and understanding its precondition into the upper ocean for autumn ice advance. Before starting at JPL, he worked on validation part of the 4DAtlanti Ocean Heat Content project at Ifremer (CNRS/UBO-LOPS, Brest, France). He did his Ph.D. at Université de Bretagne Occidentale – UBO, Brest, France – on the analysis of thermohaline variations from intra-seasonal to seasonal scales of freshwater plumes in the Gulf of Guinea. He is used to in situ data processing, remote sensing data, and combined with numerical model simulation output data. He is happy by joining and working at JPL since Jan. 2023.

Education

  • Ph.D., Physical Oceanography and Environment, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest, France (2021)
  • M.Sc., Physical Oceanography and Applications - Ocean, Atmospheric and Climate Sciences (with Honors), Univ. Toulouse 3 - UPS, France & International Chair in Mathematical Physics and Applications - ICMPA UNESCO- Chair of Université d’Abomey-Calavi - UAC, Benin (2017)
  • Maîtrise es-Sciences Physique (equivalent of M.Sc.), Université d’Abomey-Calavi, Benin (2015)

Professional Experience

  • JPL Postdoctoral fellow, SASSIE project, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech, Pasadena, CA, USA (2023-present)
  • Postdoctoral fellow, 4DAtlantic-OHC project, CNRS/UBO-LOPS - Ifremer Brest, France (2022)
  • Data scientist - Thermosalinograph data processing at GEOMAR, Kiel, Germany (Jul. 2018)
  • Hydrographer onboard R/V Meteor, cruise M148 – Position: CTD, UCTD, ADCP measurements, Microstructure, Argo and Glider float deployment - Atlantic Ocean: Belem, Brazil to Walvis Bay, Namibia (May-Jun, 2018).

Community Service

Research Interests

  • Submesoscale-mesoscale ocean dynamics from regional to global scales.
  • Ocean freshwater plumes dynamics (Rivers, Sea-ice melting and Precipitation).
  • In situ data (CTD, Argo, TSG, …) and Salinity Remote sensing data (SMOS, SMAP, …) analysis.
  • The role of the near-surface thermohaline stratification on the SST conditions: ocean heat content uptake/release through upper ocean layers.
  • Response of the ocean in the dynamic of climate change through air-sea interaction.
  • Ocean physics applications for societal needs.

Selected Awards

  • 2018 Ph.D. fellowship program of Make Our Planet Great Again (MOPGA, France) - Study of the small-scale thermohaline variability of the ocean river plume in the Gulf of Guinea.
  • 2017 Major of M.Sc.’s class - Physical Oceanography and Application - OPA, ICMPA, UNESCO-Chair/UAC.

Selected Publications

  1. Houndegnonto, O. J., Kolodziejczyk, N., Maes, C., Bourlès, B., Da-Allada, C. Y., & Reul, N. (2021), Seasonal variability of freshwater plumes in the eastern Gulf of Guinea as inferred from satellite measurements. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 126, e2020JC017041. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JC017041.