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 2: Weeks 3-4

This reading assignment introduces the equations of conservation and motion for the ocean. Week 3

  1. Geoff Vallis's Atmospheric and Oceanic Fluid Dynamics Chapter 1, 2.1-2.4, 2.7.
  2. Emery, Talley, and Pickard's Descriptive Physical Oceanography, 7th ed. Chapter 5.
  3. Cushman-Roisin and Becker's Introduction to GFD Chapters 1.1-1.10, 3.1-3.8.
  4. Eulerian Lagrangian Description Movie (Needs Realplayer).

Week 4
  1. Geoff Vallis's Atmospheric and Oceanic Fluid Dynamics Chapters 2.1-2.4, 2.7.
  2. Emery, Talley, and Pickard's Descriptive Physical Oceanography, 7th ed. Chapter 5.
  3. Cushman-Roisin and Becker's Introduction to GFD Chapters 2.1-2.5, 4.1-4.6.
  4. Eulerian Lagrangian Description Movie (Needs Realplayer).

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

Optional additional reading may be useful for the assignment:

  1. Tomczak and Godfrey's Regional Oceanography: An Introduction, Chapter 1: What drives the ocean currents?
  2. Chapters 3, 5, 6, and 7 of Robert H. Stewart's Introduction to Physical Oceanography: Physical Setting; Ocean Heat Budget; T, S & Density; and Equations of Motion.
  3. Cushman-Roisin and Becker's Introduction to GFD Appendix A: Reviewing the derivation of fluid continuum equations.
  4. Joe Pedlosky's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Chapters 1, 2: an alternative to Vallis' derivations.
  5. Adrian Gill's Atmosphere-Ocean Dynamics, Chapter 1, 2, and 3: Global budgets and yet another derivation of equations.