Atmospheric and Ocean Wave Dynamics
AOS 572, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Princeton University
Waves and eddies are the important building blocks that shape the global weather and climate. Cyclones, fronts and severe storms are by-products of these waves. The dispersion and distribution of pollutants and chemical species are largely determined by wave activity around the globe. Remarkably, the development of these waves can be understood with rather simple quasi-linear dynamics, and its nonlinear evolution into a chaotic regime can be numerically simulated.
The Course will cover:
- Observational evidence of atmospheric and oceanic waves; laboratory simulation.
- Surface and internal gravity waves; dispersion characteristics; kinetic energy spectrum; critical layer; forced resonance; and instabilities.
- Planetary waves: scale analysis; physical description of planetary wave propagation; reflections; normal modes in a closed basin.
- Large-scale baroclinic and barotropic instabilities, Eady and Charney models for baroclinic instability, and energy transfer.
Class lectures will be supplemented with hands-on numerical simulations of atmospheric and oceanic waves.
