Biography
Clara Gómez García is a postdoctoral researcher in the iCRAG Geophysics Platform. Clara graduated with a BSc in Physics in 2012 and with a MSc in Geophysics and Climatology in 2013 from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM). From 2014 to 2016, she worked as a graduate researcher at Geosciences Barcelona (GEO3BCN-CSIC) investigating passive seismic methods to image the shallow subsurface using surface waves. She joined iCRAG in 2017 and completed her PhD in 2021 from University College Dublin (UCD) and the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS). She studied seismic noise interferometry techniques for imaging crustal and mantle reflectivity and monitoring seismic velocity changes. Her current research investigates seismo-acoustic noise sources in the marine environment. The objective is to develop a machine learning-based toolkit to characterize different types of noise sources, both natural and man-made, in the ocean. General research interests include signal processing, seismo-acoustic noise source localization, seismic ambient noise imaging, volcanic monitory and rock magnetism.
The acoustic pollution produced by human activity in the marine environment is a concerning threat to ocean biodiversity, which is already endangered by the climate change impact. Particularly, marine mammals are significantly affected as they rely on vocalizations for vital activities. This project will contribute to the tracking of both protected whale species and anthropogenic noise pollution. The aim is to catalogue and characterize marine sound sources with different origins (events) by developing an algorithm that (1) learns to recognize those events based on their unique features, (2) scans and detects them from continuous ocean-bottom seismometer recordings and (3) accurately locates the event origin of the recordings in the ocean. The methods will be modifiable for the quantification of noise associated with marine industrial activity (e.g., offshore wind farm construction/operation).
Role
- Postdoctoral Researcher
Institution
- DIAS
Research Area
- Platform Technologies
Expertise
- Geophysics
