Ocean Waves and Eddies

• Ocean Waves and Eddies
• Lecturer: Prof. D. Olbers

Lecture content:

The lecture presents the role of waves and eddies in the large-scale ocean circulation. The dynamical equations describing linear oceanic waves are derived from basic principles. Dispersion, propagation, wave guides and energetics of waves are analyzed and various mathematical techniques are presented (WKB, ray theory, wave reflections, turning and critical layer analysis, eigenfunctions, stationary phase method). Most of the material is applicable to atmospheric waves as well. Further specific topics are:

- critical layers
- mixing in the ocean
- instabilities (barotropic and baroclinic instability)
- phenomenology of oceans eddies
- eddies in the Southern Ocean
- interpretation of eddy fluxes and the TEM and extended theories
- models of the overturning circulation

Lecture with examples in MATLAB.
A script will be available.