Dr Esme van Wijk - Senior Scientist at CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere

Affiliation with Antarctic Science Foundation

Ambassador for ASF on Antarctica Flights Season 2022/23

More About Esme

Esmee is a Senior Scientist at CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere with her role spanning research and operational domains. Esmee trained as physical oceanographer and marine biologist and started her career in oceanography at the Flinders University of S.A. and at the National Tidal Centre. From 1999-2006, Esmee worked at the Australian Antarctic Division in Hobart, in oceanography, acoustics and fisheries ecology projects and in stock assessments for the Commission for the Conservation of Marine Living Resources. Since 2006 she has worked in the Australian Argo program (from 2006-2010 with the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre and from 2010–2018 at CSIRO). Esmee led the delivery and oversight of the Australian Delayed-Mode Argo data stream from 2006-2019. Esmee currently leads the Under-Ice Argo array and co-leads the Deep Argo array for the Australian program.

Esmee contributes to the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership through research into circulation and water mass changes in the Southern Ocean, polynya dynamics and ocean-ice interactions at the Antarctic margins. Esmee research also uses under-ice Argo floats to gain novel insights into Antarctic continental shelf processes and to expand observations into the seasonal ice zone. Esmee has participated in 15 research voyages to tropical and temperate waters and to the Southern Ocean and Antarctica.

Current Roles

2006-present

Argo Data Management Team
Australian representative (DMQC), Metadata, Under-Ice Argo

2016-present

Southern Ocean Argo Regional Centre Australian representative

Selected Publications

Van Wijk, Esmee; Rintoul, Steve; Wallace, Luke; Ribeiro Santos, Natalia; Herraiz Borreguero, Laura. Vulnerability of Denman Glacier to Ocean Heat Flux Revealed by Profiling Float Observations. Geophysical Research Letters. 2022; 49(18):e2022GL100460.
https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL100460

Portela, Esther; Rintoul, Steve; Bestley, Sophie; Herraiz Borreguero, Laura; Van Wijk, Esmee; McMahon, Clive; et al. Seasonal Transformation and Spatial Variability of Water Masses Within MacKenzie Polynya, Prydz Bay. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans. 2021; 126(12):21.https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JC017748