Leilane Passos

Leilane Passos is a physical oceanographer. She obtained her master’s degree at the University of São Paulo (Brazil). After a period working in the oil and gas industry and as a research assistant at the National Institute for Space Research in Brazil (INPE), she obtained her PhD in Climate Dynamics at the University of Bergen and the Nansen Center in 2023.

Currently, Passos investigates climate predictability in the northern North Atlantic Ocean and the Norwegian Sea. Specifically, she focuses on ways to improve predictions produced by the Norwegian Climate Prediction Model (NorCPM). She compares NorCPM predictions with observations to assess how well the model predicts sea surface temperature and salinity several years ahead. She also studies mechanisms that give rise to predictability in the North Atlantic, such as how the major currents carry oceanic anomalies poleward and how these anomalies affect the European temperature variability in NorCPM.