Stefan's website

About me

Hi, I'm Stefan Riha. I'm a physical oceanographer with a focus on numerical modelling. I also have a background in math. Currently, my main interest is storm surge modelling.

I am looking for (sub-) contract work related to oceanographic or meteorological data processing, in particular storm surge risk assessment. If you are interested in hiring me, please contact me via email. I'm also interested in contributing to academic research projects related to storm surge risk assessment.

I'm about 50 years old and a native German speaker. I also speak English and a little bit of Portuguese.

I'm a citizen of the E.U. and will work abroad or remotely. Depending on the structure of your organization, it may be feasible to hire contractors via a third party provider operating in the E.U., such as a contractor management company or a professional employer organization.

Current activities

  • Data aggregation for storm surge hazard assessment
  • Near real-time data processing of oceanographic and meteorological data
  • Numerical ocean modelling

Education

  • 2017: PhD in mathematics (with a focus on physical oceanography) at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia
  • 2009: Msc in climate physics (with a focus on physical oceanography) at GEOMAR in Kiel, Germany
  • 2007: BSc in applied mathematics at the Vienna University of Technology, Austria

Seagoing experience (observational oceanography)

I'm not an observational oceanographer, but I had the opportunity to join two research cruises while I was a student.

  • RV Maria S Merian: MSM09/2. Duration: 4 weeks. Location: Labrador Sea - Baffin Bay
  • RV Southern Surveyor: SS2013_V04. Duration: 4 weeks. Location: subtropical southeast Indian Ocean

Documents I (co-)authored as a student or research assistant

  • Articles
  • Posters
    • S. Riha, T. J. McDougall and P. M. Barker, 2014: The construction of a 3-d Neutral Density variable for arbitrary data sets. American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2014, abstract #A21B-3020
    • Riha, S., Eden, C., 2012: Lagrangian Signatures of Baroclinically Unstable Flow in a Primitive Equation Model: From the Onset to the Decay of Exponential Perturbation Growth. Geophysical Research Abstracts Vol. 14, EGU2012-6271-1, 2012 EGU General Assembly 2012
    • Riha, S., Peliz, A., 2012: An Idealized Isopycnal 2-Layer Model of the Alboran Sea. Geophysical Research Abstracts Vol. 14, EGU2012-6292-1, 2012 EGU General Assembly 2012
    • Riha, S., Eden, C., 2011: Components of the 3-d Lagrangian Diffusivity Tensor in a Periodic Channel Featuring Zonal Jets. Geophysical Research Abstracts Vol. 13, EGU2011-3245-1, 2011 EGU General Assembly 2011
    • Riha, S., Peliz, A., 2011: Tracing the Mediterranean Outflow back into the Alboran Sea: A numerical modelling study. Geophysical Research Abstracts Vol. 13, EGU2011-2414-1, 2011 EGU General Assembly 2011
    • Riha, S., Eden, C., 2010: Comparing Estimates of Isopycnal Diffusivities in Zonal Jets Obtained from Eulerian Analysis and Lagrangian Particle Statistics. EGU 2010, Vienna, Austria, May 2010.
    • Riha, S., Griesel, A., Gille, S. T., Eden, C., 2009: The Isopycnal Diffusivity Tensor Based on Lagrangian Particle Statistics. WGOMD Workshop on Ocean Mesoscale Eddies, Exeter, UK, April 2009.
  • Other documents
    • MSc thesis, 2009: An Estimate of the Isopycnal Diffusion Tensor Based on Particle Statistics. The first part is an introduction to conventional eddy diffusivity modelling. In the second part, the velocity field of an eddy-permitting ocean model is used to extract information for eddy diffusivity modelling.
    • BSc theses (German), 2007: Numerical simulation of a geostrophically balanced flow in a channel with ROMS.

Other relevant work experience

During my BSc course I was given the opportunity to gain experience in numerical modelling while participating in the Island Wakes Project on Madeira (Portugal). PI: Rui Caldeira .