Virtual Centre for Ocean Satellite Salinity

Dr. Jim A. Helbig

Name: Dr. Jim A. Helbig

Email: HelbigJ@dfo-mpo.gc.ca

Field of Study: Physical Oceanography

Jim Helbig began life (in an academic sense) as a chemist, but soon discovered the beauty of mathematics and physical oceanography from Lawrence Mysak at the University of British Columbia. Since then, Dr. Helbig has worked in a number of subject areas including theoretical and observational physical oceanography, remote sensing, and fisheries oceanography. Jim's theoretical work includes wind wave modelling, studies of wave-current interaction and the inertial stability of coastal currents, and the numerical modelling of coastal flows. His observational studies include shipborne ADCP and mooring programs in coastal waters and drifting buoy experiments over the continental shelf.

The majority of Jim's remote sensing work has been in the area of HF radar, and he has run experiments using short range HF radar (CODAR) in coastal embayments and long range HF radar (300 km) on the Grand Banks. Several of these experiments were of the "ground-truthing" variety in which radar derived surface currents were compared with surface currents extracted from drifting buoys or with subsurface currents measured with an ADCP.

He also devoted considerable effort to extracting differential kinematic properties (divergence, vorticity) from the radar radial currents and to trying to understand their properties. In addition, Jim established an HRPT station to receive AVHRR imagery in Newfoundland and set up a program to process and archive this imagery for a set of fixed tiles spanning the Newfoundland and Labrador continental shelves. Jim has also analysed airborne SAR imagery for coastal oceanographic features and has applied spaceborne SAR imagery to the detection of ring seal breathing holes in sea ice.

All of Jim's work in observational oceanography and remote sensing has been in direct or indirect support of fisheries research. Thus for example, surface currents extracted from drifting buoy or radar experiments have been used to study the drift and dispersion of fish eggs and larvae in a number of settings. One interesting finding from the radar work was the importance of small scale surface current divergence in predicting the future distribution of egg patches.

Jim spends his free time with his family, listening to Bach, jogging, reading, and eating, but not necessarily in that order. He has also spent time in the Philippines teaching, and enjoys travelling to Southeast Asia.

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