Turbulence in the Ocean and Atmosphere

Lecture Notes

Some lectures have additional material in the form of figures and movies referred to as graphics in the table below.

Note: Although the content will correspond directly, many of these graphics links lead to pages in the Spring 2007 version of this course, where lecture number may not correspond. Use the “back” button in your browser to return to this page when done.

LEC #	TOPICS	GRAPHICS
1	Introduction (PDF - 1.0 MB)
2	Transition to turbulence (PDF)
3	Statistics and turbulence (PDF)
4-7	Convection (PDF)	Page 5: planforms Page 7: growth rate surfaces Page 7: stability bndry Page 9: lorenz eqns tau=0 Page 9: lorenz eqns tau=10 Page 11: mfa Page 11: 2d Page 12: rough surfaces Page 13: finite amp Page 14: surface convection Page 15: thermals Page 15: thermals in stratification Page 16: plumes Page 16: plumes in stratification
8	Atmospheric convection (PDF - 2.0 MB) (Courtesy of Prof. Kerry Emanuel. Used with permission.)
9	3D turbulence (PDF)
10	3D turbulence and tracers (PDF)
11	Closure schemes for 3D turbulence (PDF)
12	Ocean turbulence
13	Ocean turbulence (double diffusions)
14	Two-dimensional turbulence (PDF)	Page 2: 2d Page 2: statistics Page 2: averages Page 3: mean k Page 5: point vortex simulations Page 7: vortex waves Page 7: vortices in shear Page 8: vortices in neighbor field
15-16	QG turbulence (PDF)	Page 4: means Page 5: two vertical mode case Page 6: example Page 6: resonance Page 7: resonance-angle Page 7: resonance-modes
17	Particle dispersion and drift (PDF)
18	Tracer turbulence (PDF)	effective diffusivity in a channel effective diffusivity in the troposphere and lower stratosphere
19	Transformed Eulerian mean (PDF)
20	Mean-field approximation
21	Active tracer transport (PDF)
22	Boundary layer turbulence (PDF)