Emilio García Ladona

Dr. Emilio García-Ladona is researcher at the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM - CSIC) of Barcelona since 1995. From 2007 to 2009 he has been the Head of the Department of Physical Oceanography, and since september 2009, he is the technical vicedirector of the ICM. Major scientific interests are focused on: Mesoscale variability in the ocean: mixing processes and dynamics of the mixed layer, instabilities, topographic interactions and shelf/slope exchanges; dynamics of the western mediterranean circulation; pattern recognition techniques applied to data analysis, specially in teledetection; operational oceanography. He is perhaps one of the rare spanish oceanographer not involved in Malaspina project..

Research Projects and Activities
Outreach and Teaching Activities
My coordinates

Emilio García Ladona - emilio [at] icm [dot] csic [dot] es
Dept. d'Oceanografia Fisica
Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM)
Centre Mediterrani d'Investigacions Marines i Ambientals (CSIC)
Passeig Marítim, 37-49
08003 Barcelona (Spain)
Office: B-26 -- Tf: (+34) 93 230 9500 - 93 230 95 13

Research Projects and Activities

TOSCA (G-MED09-425)

The TOSCA (Tracking Oil Spills and coastal Awareness) project aims to develop a long-lasting network of policy makers & scientists for observation & forecasting of marine accidents (oil pollution, Search And Rescue (SAR) operations …), in the Mediterranean Sea. TOSCA will supply forecast models, risk maps & action plans developed by the scientists in collaboration with the local authorities, which will enable them to improve their immediate response capacity & to ensure a sustainable costal monitoring.

A. García-Olivares, J.L. de Pablos, R. Madrigal Sailing the Prestige out to sea. An independent analysis. Scientia Marina, 75, 3, 533-548. (2011)
ESEOO (VEM2003-20577-C14-10)

ESEOO has been a project to promote the Operational Oceanography at a national level. More precisely, to give scientific assessment and expertise to improve the management of marine emergencies. The project has been composed by 24 research groups from several national and international laboratories and universities and with the participation of the spanish Marine Search and Rescue Agency (SASEMAR). Web - DOF

F. Machín, M. Emelianov, P. Rodríguez, E. García-Ladona, J. Menéndez, J. Salat XBT profilers for operational purposes: application and validation in real exercises. Scientia Marina, 72, 4, 779-799. DOI: 10.3989/scimar.2008.72n4779 (2008)

M. G. Sotillo, E. Álvarez Fanjul, S. Castanedo, A. J. Abascal, J. Menendez, M. Emelianov, R. Olivella, E. García-Ladona, M. Ruiz-Villarreal, J. Conde,M. Gómez, P. Conde, A.D. Gutierrez, R. Medina Towards an operational system for oil-spill forecast over Spanish waters: Initial developments and implementation test. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 56, 4, 686-703. DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2007.12.021 (2008)
Submarine Canyons (INTAS - 460)

This was a joint spanish-russian cooperation project to provide a deeper understanding of physical mechanisms that control the hydrodynamic regimes associated with submarine canyons and to evaluate their impact on mass transfer between the continental shelf and open ocean. ( Web ).

A. Palanques, E. García-Ladona, D. Gomis, J. Martín, M. Marcos, A. Pascual, P. Puig, J.M. Gili, M. Emelianov, S. Montserrat, J. Guillén, J. Tintoré, M. Segura, A. Jordi, S. Ruiz, G. Basterretxea, J. Font, D. Blasco, F. Pagès General patterns of circulation, sediment fluxes and ecology of the Palamós (La Fonera) submarine canyon, northwestern Mediterranean. Progress in Oceanography, 66, 89-119. DOI: 10.1016/j.pocean.2004.07.016 (2005)

P. Puig, A. Palanques, J. Guillén, E. García-Ladona Deep slope currents and suspended particle fluxes in and around the Foix submarine canyon (NW Mediterranean).. Deep-Sea Research. Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers, 47, 343-366. (2000)
AFORO: Shape Analysis of Fish Otoliths (AVGION - TIC2000-0376-p4-04)

AFORO was a project to develop tools for automatic classification of fish otholits from an image database. As a result we developed the AFORO website that offers an open online catalogue of otolith images and its associated shape analysis through pattern recognition techniques applying Fourier transform (FT), curvature space scale (CSS) and wavelet analysis (WT). This site also allows to search and identify directly using query images of otholits. (Web).
V. Parisi-Baradad, A. Manjabacas, A. Lombarte, R. Olivella, Ò. Chic, J. Piera, E. García-Ladona Automated Taxon Identification of Teleost fishes using an otolith online database—AFORO. Fisheries Research, 105, 1, 13-20. DOI: 10.1016/j.fishres.2010.02.005 (2010)

A. Lombarte, O. Chic, V. Parisi-Baradad, R. Olivella, J. Piera, E. García-Ladona A web-based environment for shape analysis of fish otoliths. The AFORO database. Scientia Marina, 70, 1, 147-152. (2006)

J. Piera, V. Parisi-Baradad, E. García-Ladona, A. Lombarte, L. Recasens, J. Cabestany Otolith shape feature extraction oriented to automatic classification with open distributed data. Marine and Freshwater Research, 56, 805-814. DOI: 10.1071/MF04163 (2005)

V. Parisi-Baradad, A. Lombarte, E. García-Ladona, J. Cabestany, J. Piera, O. Chic Otolith shape contour analysis using affine transformation invariant wavelet transforms and curvature scale space representation. Marine and Freshwater Research, 56, 795-804. DOI: 10.1071/MF04162 (2005)
Operational Oceanography Activities

VADO development: A system for accessing and visualizing data through Google maps viewer. Now we are moving towards a Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure (IDE)

BUDAS system: A system to automatically collect and distribute drifting buoys localisation from satellite (ARGOS, IRIDIUM, etc,), and to build animation through Google EARTH and Google maps.

Teaching Activities

Former Students:
- Vicenç Parisi, now at Departament d'Enginyeria Electrònica (UPC)
- Jordi Isern, now at Laboratori de Recerca del Clima
- Jordi Solé, now at Grupo de Oceanografía Física (IMEDEA)
- Ramon Reig, now at Grupo de Codiseño Hardware Software (UVIC)
Since 2006 I am professor in the Master Program in Oceanography given by Universidad de las Palmas de Gran Canaria. I share the course lectures on Methods in Physical Oceanography with Dr. Jaume Piera (UTM) and Dr. Joaquim Ballabrera (UTM). Also these lectures are within the Master in Marine Sciences: Oceanography and Management of the Marine Environment given jointly by the University of Barcelona (UB) and the Universidad Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC).
1997-1999: I was collaborating as Associated Professor of the Statistical Physics Group at the Physics Department at the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB). At that time I was responsible of teaching the following courses within the Environmental Sciences Program (CCAA):
- Oceanography
- General Physics for Environmental Sciences
- Meteorology
1990-1997: I was Assistant Professor of the Statistical Physics Group at the Physics Department in the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). I was responsible of giving lectures about General Physics, Fluid Mechanics, Mathemathical Methods.

Outreach