Turbulence in the Ocean and Atmosphere

As taught in: Spring 2007

Examples of turbulent flows at the surface of the sun, in the earth's atmosphere, in the Gulf Stream at the ocean surface, and in a volcanic eruption. (Images courtesy of NASA, NOAA and USGS.)

Instructors:

Prof. Glenn Flierl

Prof. Raffaele Ferrari

MIT Course Number:

12.820

Level:

Graduate

Course Features

Course Highlights

This course features a movie "Fluid Dynamics Film - Turbulence" and simulations "Two-dimensional Flow around an Obstacle" about turbulence in the study materials section.

Course Description

This course presents the phenomena, theory, and modeling of turbulence in the Earth's oceans and atmosphere. The scope ranges from centimeter to planetary scale motions. The regimes of turbulence include homogeneous isotropic three dimensional turbulence, convection, quasi-geostrophic turbulence, shallow water turbulence, baroclinic turbulence, macroturbulence in the ocean and atmosphere.