OCN620: the course (through 2020)

Note

This web site is the version used through the Fall 2020 term. For 2021 and beyond, go to http://uhslc.soest.hawaii.edu/ocn620/home.html.

OCN620 is a graduate-level introduction to Physical Oceanography (PO). It is intended primarily for graduate students in the Oceanography Department, but it is also suitable for Meteorology students and others interested in PO. The incoming student should have a good background in Newtonian physics and vector calculus.

For more information, see the syllabus.

• Introduction
  • What is PO?
  • How do we study PO?
  • Learning outcomes
• Instructors’ notes
  • Eric’s Notes
  • Kelvin’s Notes
• Exercises and tutorials, 2019
  • August 26 (Monday): Course introduction
  • August 28 (Wednesday): Surface currents: drifter climatology
  • August 30 (Friday): Winds and wind stress
  • September 4 (Wednesday): Winds and wind stress; vectors
  • September 6: Winds and wind stress (really, this time)
  • September 9 (Monday): First view of ocean water properties
  • September 11 (Wed.): First view of ocean water properties
  • Sept. 13 (Fri.): first look at SSH, and some dynamics
  • Sept. 16 (Mon.): SSH (second try); and how a long gravity wave works
  • Sept. 18 (Wed.): Long gravity waves, continued
  • Sept. 20 (Friday): The rotating frame of reference
  • Sept. 23 (Monday): More rotation, and some review
  • Sept. 25 (Wed.): Continuation from Monday.
  • Sept. 27 (Friday): Geostrophic balance and Taylor columns in the rotating tank
  • Sept. 30 (Monday): Geostrophic balance in the ocean
  • Oct. 2 (Wed.): Geostrophy with stratification; thermal wind balance
  • Oct. 4 (Fri.): Geostrophy: the great integrator
  • Oct. 7 (Monday): Ekman layers
  • Oct. 9 (Wed.): Ekman layers: the spiral
  • Oct. 11 (Fri.): Ekman layers: boundary conditions
  • Oct. 14 (Mon.): Midterm; but preparing for Air-sea fluxes
  • Oct. 16 (Wed.): Air-sea fluxes: Radiation balance
  • Oct. 18 (Fri.): Fluxes in general
  • Oct. 21 (Monday): Fluxes, continued
  • Oct. 23 (Wednesday): Tank demo of a baroclinic eddy
  • Oct. 25 (Friday): SOEST Open House
  • Oct. 28 (Monday): Global flux component distributions
  • Oct. 30 (Wednesday): Vorticity and the Sverdrup Balance
  • Nov. 1 (Friday): The subtropical gyre in the tank
  • Nov. 4 (Monday): Sverdrup balance and the western boundary current
  • Nov. 6 (Wednesday): Sverdrup and WBC, continued
  • Nov. 8 (Friday): Towards the ventilated thermocline
  • Nov. 13 (Wednesday): Ventilated thermocline and water properties
  • Nov. 15 (Friday): Water classification, and deep water formation
  • Nov. 18 (Monday): More deep water, and the Stommel-Arons model
  • Nov. 20 (Wednesday): Waves
  • Nov. 22 (Friday): More waves
  • Nov. 25 (Monday): Tides (Phil)
  • Nov. 27 (Wednesday): Sea level (Phil)
  • Dec. 2 (Monday): Back to surface gravity waves
  • Dec. 4 (Wednesday): Stokes drift; and Kelvin waves
  • Dec. 6 (Friday): Smaller-scale internal waves, continuous stratification
  • Dec. 9 (Monday): Internal waves, continued
  • Dec. 11 (Wednesday; last class):
• Exercises and tutorials from previous years
  • 2018
  • 2014
  • 2013
  • By hand:
  • Ipython notebook tutorial:
• Presentations
  • 2019
  • 2018
  • 2017
  • 2016
  • 2015
  • 2014
  • 2013
  • 2011
  • Older
• Oceanographic data links
  • Multiple Data Sets
  • Hydrographic Data
  • Equatorial upper ocean
  • El Nino/La Nina
  • Currents
  • Winds
  • Fluxes
  • Sea Surface Temperature (SST)
  • Sea Surface Height
  • Ocean Swell
  • Mixing
  • Bathymetry
  • Numerical Models
  • Climate Programs
  • Other
• Other Courses, Books, Films
• Animations