ATOC 5051, Spring 2010 — Notes & Calendar

ATOC 5051: Introduction to Physical Oceanography

Or, Notions for the Motions of the Oceans. This is a core course for graduate students covering the basic tools needed for oceanography. Observational, dynamical, numerical, and descriptive methods are discussed and used to get a sense of the historical and contemporary understanding of the motions of the oceans.

You can access the syllabus, proceedings, class notes, and reading.

ATOC5051, Spring 2010

Intro to Physical Oceanography, or Notions for the Motions of the Oceans

Reading Assignment 1: Weeks 1-2

This reading assignment focuses on observations, both old-fashioned and new. The readings are:

  1. Chapters 1 and 2 of Robert H. Stewart's Introduction to Physical Oceanography history and conceptual introduction..
  2. Emery, Talley, and Pickard's Descriptive Physical Oceanography, 7th ed. Chapter 6.
  3. Siedler, Church & Gould's WOCE Volume, The Ocean: Circulation and Climate Chapter 2.1.

The reading quiz is due by class time. It can be accessed through CULearn.

Optional additional reading may be useful for the assignment:

  1. Siedler, Church & Gould's WOCE Volume, The Ocean: Circulation and Climate, Chapters 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 on observational methods.
  2. Emery, Talley, and Pickard's Descriptive Physical Oceanography, 7th ed, Chapter 7 on data analysis.
  3. Sverdrup, Johnson, and Fleming's The Ocean, Chapter 10 on traditional observations (circa 1950).
  4. "Ready to Roll" and "What Do You Mean Mean?" from 2007's class.
  5. "3 Kinds of Lies" from 2008's class.
  6. Wunsch's The Ocean Inverse Problem, Chapter 2 on basic dynamics and questions about the world ocean circulation.
  7. Cushman-Roisin and Beckers's Introduction to Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Chapter 22 on data assimilation techniques.
  8. NASA: Nick Short's Remote Sensing Tutorial.