Teaching

What affects the atmospheric and oceanic flows? The basic principle of atmospheric and ocean circulation is simple: warm (or light) layers rise and cold (or dense) layers sink- tropics work in that way. For latitudes outside the Earth’s tropics, the general circulation of the atmosphere and oceans is dominated by `quasi-geostrophic’ fluid motions that are controlled by planetary rotation and fluid stratification. Any fast processes are driven by waves. In this course, we develop an understanding of dynamics using scaling and analysis of simplified models. Synoptic dynamics in the atmosphere (~1000 km of weather and large-scale circulation patterns), and the mesoscale dynamics in the ocean (~100 km which contains ~90% of the ocean’s kinetic energy) are discussed.

In this course, basic principles of fluid mechanics is covered. Contents include hydrostatics, buoyancy, Lagrangian and Eulerian systems, control volume analysis, mass conservation and momentum conservation, viscous fluid flows, flow through pipes, dimensional analysis, boundary layers, lift and drag on objects.