At the end of the course the students will have developed a generic and intuitive understanding of the physical processes responsible for the present-day ocean and shelf sea circulation.
By the end of the course, students will:
- Have an understanding of the physical properties of the sea water
- Have a good intuitive understanding of the physical laws that drive the ocean circulation
- Appreciate the difficulty of measuring the ocean circulation, and how computer codes are used to simulate this circulation
- Appreciate the role that ocean circulation plays in climate and marine ecosystems
- Have some practical background knowledge on the geography of the different oceans, seas and their main currents
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The course will start with describing ocean properties, such as sea level, temperature, salinity and density. Their physical relevance and practical measurement techniques will also be discussed. Impact of the earth rotation and the associated Coriolis force on the ocean circulation will be used to explain fundamental ocean phenomena such as geostrophic currents, the large-scale wind-driven ocean circulation and western boundary currents (e.g. Gulf Stream). Upper ocean processes in the mixed layer and the Ekman transport will be covered and used to explain upwelling and downwelling phenomena (water moving from depth to the surface and vice-versa). Another large scale dominant feature with impact on the vertical movement of the water, called the thermohaline circulation because it is partly driven by salt and temperature differences in different areas of the ocean will be introduced. Processes that drive large-scale climate phenomena such as El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) will also be presented. Finally, specific phenomena such as tides and gravity waves will also be introduced to explain shelf sea circulation.
The course includes classes, computer labs and (group) projects with a presentation.
Academic skills: Presentation, working in groups on exercises, programming in Python
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