This book introduces computer-based modeling of oceanic processes. It contains over twenty practical exercises, using freely available open-Source software, and covers a wide range of topics, from long surface waves to general wind-driven circulation.

This book focuses on motions of incompressible ?uids of a freely moving surface being in?uenced by both the Earth’s rotation and density strati?cation. In contrast to traditional textbooks in the ?eld of geophysical ?uid dynamics, such as those by by Cushman-Roisin (1994) and Gill (1982), this book uses the method of proce- oriented hydrodynamic modelling to illustrate a rich variety of ?uid phenomena. To this end, the reader can adopt the model codes, found on the Springer server accompanying this book, to reproduce most graphs of this book and, even better, to create animation movies. The reader can also employ the codes as templates for own independent studies. This can be done by a lay person as a hobby activity, undergraduate or postgraduate students as part of their education, or professional scientists as part of research. Exercises of this book are run with open-source software that can be freely downloaded from the Internet. This includes the FORTRAN 95 compiler “G95” used for execution of model simulations, the data visualisation program “SciLab”, and “ImageMagick” for the creation of graphs and GIF animations, which can be watched with most Internet browsers.

This book sets forth the physical, mathematical, and numerical foundations of computer models used to understand and predict the global ocean climate system. Aimed at students and researchers of ocean and climate science who seek to understand the physical content of ocean model equations and numerical methods for their solution, it is largely general in formulation and employs modern mathematical techniques. It also highlights certain areas of cutting-edge research. Stephen Griffies presents material that spans a broad spectrum of issues critical for modern ocean climate models. Topics are organized into parts consisting of related chapters, with each part largely self-contained. Early chapters focus on the basic equations arising from classical mechanics and thermodynamics used to rationalize ocean fluid dynamics. These equations are then cast into a form appropriate for numerical models of finite grid resolution. Basic discretization methods are described for commonly used classes of ocean climate models. The book proceeds to focus on the parameterization of phenomena occurring at scales unresolved by the ocean model, which represents a large part of modern oceanographic research. The final part provides a tutorial on the tensor methods that are used throughout the book, in a general and elegant fashion, to formulate the equations.

Introduction to Ocean Circulation and Modeling provide basics for physical oceanography covering ocean properties, ocean circulations and their modeling. First part of the book explains concepts of oceanic circulation, geostrophy, Ekman, Sverdrup dynamics, Stommel and Munk problems, two-layer dynamics, stratification, thermal and salt diffusion, vorticity/instability, and so forth. Second part highlights basic implementation framework for ocean models, discussion of different models, and their unique differences from the common framework with basin-scale modeling, regional modeling, and interdisciplinary modeling at different space and time scales. Features: Covers ocean properties, ocean circulations and their modeling. Explains the centrality of a rotating earth and its implications for ocean and atmosphere in a simple manner. Provides basic facts of ocean dynamics. Illustrative diagrams for clear understanding of key concepts. Outlines interdisciplinary and complex models for societal applications. The book aims at Senior Undergraduate Students, Graduate Students and Researchers in Ocean Science and Engineering, Ocean Technology, Physical Oceanography, Ocean Circulation, Ocean Modeling, Dynamical Oceanography and Earth Science.

Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series, Volume 177. This monograph is the first to survey progress in realistic simulation in a strongly eddying regime made possible by recent increases in computational capability. Its contributors comprise the leading researchers in this important and constantly evolving field. Divided into three parts Oceanographic Processes and Regimes: Fundamental Questions Ocean Dynamics and State: From Regional to Global Scale, and Modeling at the Mesoscale: State of the Art and Future Directions The volume details important advances in physical oceanography based on eddy resolving ocean modeling. It captures the state of the art and discusses issues that ocean modelers must consider in order to effectively contribute to advancing current knowledge, from subtleties of the underlying fluid dynamical equations to meaningful comparison with oceanographic observations and leading-edge model development. It summarizes many of the important results which have emerged from ocean modeling in an eddying regime, for those interested broadly in the physical science. More technical topics are intended to address the concerns of those actively working in the field.

This advanced textbook on modeling, data analysis and numerical techniques for marine science has been developed from a course taught by the authors for many years at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. The first part covers statistics: singular value decomposition, error propagation, least squares regression, principal component analysis, time series analysis and objective interpolation. The second part deals with modeling techniques: finite differences, stability analysis and optimization. The third part describes case studies of actual ocean models of ever increasing dimensionality and complexity, starting with zero-dimensional models and finishing with three-dimensional general circulation models. Throughout the book hands-on computational examples are introduced using the MATLAB programming language and the principles of scientific visualization are emphasised. Ideal as a textbook for advanced students of oceanography on courses in data analysis and numerical modeling, the book is also an invaluable resource for a broad range of scientists undertaking modeling in chemical, biological, geological and physical oceanography.

Oceans play a pivotal role in our weather and climate. Ocean-borne commerce is vital to our increasingly close-knit global community. Yet we do not fully understand the intricate details of how they function, how they interact with the atmosphere, and what the limits are to their biological productivity and their tolerance to wastes. While satellites are helping us to fill in the gaps, numerical ocean models are playing an important role in increasing our ability to comprehend oceanic processes, monitor the current state of the oceans, and to a limited extent, even predict their future state.Numerical Models of Oceans and Oceanic Processes is a survey of the current state of knowledge in this field. It brings together a discussion of salient oceanic dynamics and processes, numerical solution methods, and ocean models to provide a comprehensive treatment of the topic. Starting with elementary concepts in ocean dynamics, it deals with equatorial, mid-latitude, high latitude, and coastal dynamics from the perspective of a modeler. A comprehensive and up-to-date chapter on tides is also included. This is followed by a discussion of different kinds of numerical ocean models and the pre- and post-processing requirements and techniques. Air-sea and ice-ocean coupled models are described, as well as data assimilation and nowcast/forecasts. Comprehensive appendices on wavelet transforms and empirical orthogonal functions are also included.This comprehensive and up-to-date survey of the field should be of interest to oceanographers, atmospheric scientists, and climatologists. While some prior knowledge of oceans and numerical modeling is helpful, the book includes an overview of enough elementary material so that along with its companion volume, Small Scale Processes in Geophysical Flows, it should be useful to both students new to the field and practicing professionals.* Comprehensive and up-to-date review* Useful for a two-semester (or one-semester on selected topics) graduate level course* Valuable reference on the topic* Essential for a better understanding of weather and climate

This book offers a comprehensive overview of the models and methods employed in the rapidly advancing field of numerical ocean circulation modeling. For those new to the field, concise reviews of the equations of oceanic motion, sub-grid-scale parameterization, and numerical approximation techniques are presented and four specific numerical models, chosen to span the range of current practice, are described in detail. For more advanced users, a suite of model test problems is developed to illustrate the differences among models, and to serve as a first stage in the quantitative evaluation of future algorithms. The extensive list of references makes this book a valuable text for both graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the marine sciences and in related fields such as meteorology, and climate and coupled biogeochemical modeling.

Early in 1979, a group of wave researchers proposed a wave model inter comparison study to clarify the interrelations existing among the various wave models which have been developed in past years for real-time wave forecasting, wave statistics compilations, or hindcast case studies. The idea was immediately welcomed by the wave modeling community, and, finally, nine wave modeling groups from the United States, Japan, and Europe participated in the exercise. The principal results of this work are presented here jointly by the Sea Wave Modeling Project (swAMP) Group (the members of which are listed in Appendix A). Descriptions of the models used in the study are given in Part II of this volume. A more complete documentation of the entire set of numerical experiments is given in Part 2 of the Sea Wave Modeling Project (SWAMP group, 1982). The main purpose of the intercomparison study was to test our present understanding of the physics of . wind-generated surface waves from the viewpoint of wave modeling. Specifically, we wished to clarify the basic interdependence between understanding the physics of surface waves, repre senting the physics numerically, and predicting quantitatively the detailed space-time evolution of a two-dimensional surface wave spectrum for a given wind field. It was not our intent to carry out a model competition. In this sense there were no winners or losers: all models could claim specific strong points, and all displayed weaknesses in some areas.

This textbook introduces step by step the basic numerical methods to solve the equations governing the motion of the atmosphere and ocean, and describes how to develop a set of corresponding instructions for the computer as part of a code. Today's computers are powerful enough to allow 7-day forecasts within hours, and modern teaching of the subject requires a combination of theoretical and computational approaches. The presentation is aimed at beginning graduate students intending to become forecasters or researchers, that is, users of existing models or model developers. However, model developers must be well versed in the underlying physics as well as in numerical methods. Thus, while some of the topics discussed in the modeling of the atmosphere and ocean are more advanced, the book ensures that the gap between those scientists who analyze results from model simulations and observations and those who work with the inner works of the model does not widen further. In this spirit, the course presents methods whereby important balance equations in oceanography and meteorology, namely the advection-diffusion equation and the shallow water equations on a rotating Earth, can be solved by numerical means with little prior knowledge. The numerical focus is on the finite-difference (FD) methods, and although more powerful methods exist, the simplicity of FD makes it ideal as a pedagogical introduction to the subject. The book also includes suitable exercises and computer problems.