Abstract
Spawned from boundary currents and mesoscale eddies, a variety of different submesoscale phenomena spontaneously arise in the ocean. These include surface frontogenesis and filamentogenesis, coherent vortices, ageostrophic instabilities, and topographic wakes and gravity waves. An overview is presented of their causes, dynamics, and consequences.
About the speaker
Prof James C. McWilliams received his PhD in in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University in 1971. After holding a research fellowship in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics at Harvard from 1971 to 1974, he worked in the Oceanography Section at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), where he became a Senior Scientist in 1980. In 1994 he became the Louis B. Slichter Professor of Earth Sciences in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and the Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics at University of California at Los Angeles, while retaining a part-time appointment at NCAR.
Prof McWilliams' primary areas of scientific research are the fluid dynamics of Earth's oceans and atmosphere, both their theory and computational modeling. Particular subjects include the maintenance of the general circulations; climate dynamics; geostrophically and cyclostrophically balanced (or slow manifold) dynamics in rotating, stratified fluids; vortex dynamics; planetary boundary layers; planetary-scale thermohaline convection; the roles of coherent structures in turbulent flows in geophysical and astrophysical regimes; numerical algorithms; statistical estimation theory; and coastal ocean modeling.
Prof McWilliams is a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union.
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The lecture is free and open to all. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.
Light refreshments will be served from 4:30 to 5:00 pm.
HKUST Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study
Enquiries ias@ust.hk / 2358 5912
http://ias.ust.hk
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