— by Nina Hall

Frontiers in Marine Science is delighted to welcome our new Specialty Chief Editor, Hans van Haren, who is leading the journal’s new specialty section on Physical Oceanography.

“The section on Physical Oceanography is devoted to the understanding of physical processes in marine systems. It aims to publish innovative insights into all aspects of physical oceanography in both the open ocean and shelf seas and their potential effects on marine life and transport of matter. This requires a broad range of viewpoints from theoretical, modelling and observational perspectives, with multidisciplinary links to marine biogeochemistry, atmospheric sciences and hydrodynamics. This section in Frontiers in Marine Science aims at cutting edge contributions through high quality original and unpublished research articles,” says Hans van Haren.

On the relevance of Physical Oceanography to Marine Science, Hans van Haren commented: “With the growing awareness of the ocean, which covers 70% of the Earth’s surface, and its coupling with the atmosphere, accurate knowledge about its dynamics is more than timely. As we still lack detailed studies beyond those that explore the deep-sea, expectations are that for the near future insights and scientific output in Physical Oceanography expand, hopefully rapidly enough to keep up with environmental changes.”

Hans van Haren is senior scientist at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ). His research interests encompass:

• Physical Oceanography

• Internal waves

• Turbulent mixing processes

• High-resolution ocean observatories

Physical Oceanography welcomes high-quality article submissions and Research Topic proposals. Send us yours – or contact marinescience@frontiersin.org with any questions.

Frontiers journals have some of the highest citation rates. Among the world’s 20 largest publishers in 2017, Frontiers ranks 4th most-cited with an average of 3.65 citations per article.  In total, Frontiers articles have received more than 700,000 citations to date.