SEMINAR: MPO Seminar: Dr. Erik Van Sebille, Wednesday, May 18, at 3:00 p.m., MSC 343

[Sandrine Apelbaum <sapelbaum@rsmas.miami.edu>]

MPO Seminar

Dr. Erik Van Sebille, 

"The horizontal and vertical ocean circulation on decadal to millenial time scales"

Room: MSC 343 (please note room change)

Date: Wednesday,May 18, at 3:00 p.m.

abstract:

The ocean circulation is dominated by two types of circulation patterns (horizontal versus vertical) that differ in both forcing (wind-driven versus buoyancy-driven) and time scales (inter-annual versus inter-centennial). However, these two types of circulations are in many places so intertwined that they can not be studied separately. Water parcels advected by ocean currents are part of both circulations and their pathways are complex superpositions of the two textbook current patterns.

In this presentation, I will discuss some examples of how subtly intertwined the wind-driven and buoyancy-driven circulations are. In order to study the advection of water around the global ocean, Lagrangian pathways are either calculated from high-resolution model output directly for problems on decadal time scales or using so-called super-trajectories for centennial time scales. Such super-trajectories are computed from short trajectories by essentially tying these short trajectories together in a Monte Carlo process. I will show how powerful these super-trajectories are, and how they can be used to trace the global three-dimensional ocean circulation on centennial to millennial time scales.

Sandrine Apelbaum

Meteorology and Physical Oceanography 
Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science
University of Miami
4600 Rickenbacker Causeway
Miami, FL 33149-1098
Tel     (305) 421-4057
Fax     (305) 421-4696

sapelbaum@rsmas.miami.edu