Ruichen Zhou / 周瑞宸
PhD student in Surveying and Mapping
Satellite altimetry · Gravity models · Python & practical tooling
I am a PhD student at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and a joint PhD student at the University of Stuttgart.
My work focuses on satellite altimetry, marine gravity and the Python tools needed to turn raw observations into usable geophysical products.
CV · GitHub · Google Scholar · Email
Current positions
PhD student in Surveying and Mapping, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (2024— )
Joint PhD student, University of Stuttgart (2025— )
What I do
Research
- Satellite altimetry data processing and retracking
- Gravity anomalies and vertical gravity gradients over the oceans
- Mean sea surface and marine gravity modelling
Engineering & tools
- Python pipelines for satellite and geophysical data analysis
- Local AI with Ollama as a lightweight copilot for coding and reading papers
- Self-hosted services and small-scale network setups for remote development and privacy-friendly networking.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Recent peer-reviewed work on satellite altimetry and marine gravity:
Zhou, R., Guo, J., Ya, S., Sun, H., & Liu, X. (2025). SDUST2023VGGA: A global ocean vertical gradient of gravity anomaly model determined from multidirectional data from mean sea surface. Earth System Science Data, 17(3), 817–836. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-817-2025
Zhou, R., Guo, J., Ya, S., Sun, H., & Liu, X. (2024). SDUST2023VGGA (V1.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14177000
Zhou, R., Liu, X., Guo, J., Hwang, C., Jia, Y., Chang, X., & Sun, H. (2024). Inverting vertical gravity anomaly gradients using multidirectional data from mean sea surface model: A case of Arabian Sea. Earth, Planets and Space, 76(1), Article 153. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40623-024-02105-5
Zhou, R., Liu, X., Li, Z., Sun, Y., Yuan, J., Guo, J., & Ardalan, A. A. (2023). On performance of vertical gravity gradient determined from CryoSat-2 altimeter data over Arabian Sea. Geophysical Journal International, 234(2), 1519–1529. https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggad153
PROJECTS
Marine gravity & vertical gradient inversion
Developing and applying methods to invert gravity anomalies and vertical gravity gradients from satellite altimetry and mean sea surface data, including:
- using grid-based MSS models to derive global vertical gravity gradient fields
- evaluating vertical gravity gradients from along-track CryoSat-2 data over regional seas
These methods support several gravity and seabed topography modelling efforts in my group.
Altimetry waveform reprocessing
Developed scripts for coastal satellite altimetry waveform reprocessing (e.g. using singular spectrum analysis) to improve data quality for gravity-related applications.
Student research projects
Led graduate research projects on:
- inversion of ocean vertical gravity gradient anomalies from mean sea surface models
- computing vertical deflection and vertical gravity gradients from along-track sea surface heights
TOOLS & SETUP
- Python for scientific computing – daily driver for data processing, model evaluation and plotting.
- Local AI with Ollama – run several open-source language models locally as a lightweight copilot for coding, reading papers and exploring datasets, without relying solely on remote APIs.
- Development environment – Linux, Git, Docker, Jupyter; reproducible environments for experiments and data pipelines.
- Networking & self-hosted services – remote development over SSH and side-router based setups with DNS-based filtering and IPv6 / port forwarding.
CURRICULUM VITAE
For a full list of education, publications and experience, please see my CV.