A snapshot taken 1.5 days after the start of a numerical experiment on geostrophic adjustment: a thickness anomaly of a dense fluid was released from rest onto an f−plane centered on 30oN and allowed to evolve freely under the effects of gravity and rotation. (Image courtesy of Dr. James F. Price.)
Author(s)
Dr. James F. Price
Resource Description
Resource Features
Course Description
This collection of three essays was developed from the author's experience teaching the course Fluid Dynamics of the Atmosphere and Ocean, offered to graduate students entering the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography. The essays are:
- Dimensional Analysis of Models and Data Sets: Similarity Solutions and Scaling Analysis,
- A Coriolis Tutorial, and
- Lagrangian and Eulerian Representations of Fluid Flow: Kinematics and the Equations of Motion
The goal of this resource is to help each student master the concepts and mathematical tools that make up the foundation of classical and geophysical fluid dynamics. These essays treat these topics in considerably greater depth than a comprehensive fluids textbook can afford, and they are accompanied by data files (MATLAB® and Fortan) that allows some application and experimentation. They should be suitable for self study.