Upcoming Seminars, Spring 2008

Unless otherwise noted, all seminars are 3:30-4:30 in Burt 193.

Apr 2, 2008
Gregory C. Johnson, NOAA/PMEL & UW/Oceanography: "Recent decadal variations in Antarctic bottom water properties"

Apr 8, 2008
Ted Durland, COAS, OSU: "Propagation of large-scale waves through narrow straits"

2:00-3:00 PM, Apr 29, 2008, Joint PO/BIO Seminar
Oscar Schofield, Institute for Marine and Coastal Studies, Rutgers University:
"So you want to build an ocean observatory... A 15 year retrospective in building the Mid-Atlantic COOL room"

May 20, 2008
Jonathan Nash, COAS, OSU: "Turbulence and mixing in the Columbia River plume and estuary"

Jun 3, 2008
Antonio Fetter, COAS, OSU: "On the Origins of the Variability of the Malvinas Current in a Global, Eddy-Permitting Numerical Simulation"
Abstract:
We analyze the output of experiment 4C of the Parallel Ocean Circulation Model to study the origins of the variability of the Malvinas Current (MC) transport. First, we investigated the links between the variabilities of the MC and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) transports at the Drake Passage. The correlation between them is relatively low (~0.45), considering the proximity of both currents. However, after high-frequency oscillations (periods shorter than 6 months) are removed the correlation increases to ~0.7. Upon crossing the Drake Passage most of the ACC transport bifurcates into two branches: the east branch, which embraces the Polar Front, and the west branch, which follows contours of planetary potential vorticity along the continental slope of South America and will form the MC. Time series analyses indicate that the connection between the transport variations of the ACC and the MC is masked by high-frequency oscillations. Although a substantial portion of the high-frequency variability that masks the connection between the ACC and the MC is produced and dissipated locally, there are also anomalies that propagate between those regions. The most conspicuous of these signals has an average speed of ~6 - 7 cm.s-1 and a period of ~150 days. To investigate the contribution of the wind forcing to the variability of the ACC and the MC, we used Principal Estimator Patterns (PEP) analysis. The results indicate that the wind stress explains a larger portion of the variance of the transport of both currents than the wind stress curl. The MC and ACC transports seem to respond to a belt of zonal wind stress anomalies in the latitudinal range of the Drake Passage that extends farther north over the South Indian Ocean. The wind forcing over the South Atlantic Ocean is unimportant to the variability of the MC transport.

Jun 10, 2008
Remi Tailleux, University of Reading: "Energetics of turbulent stratified mixing and the ocean heat engine controversy"

Jun 16, 2008
Renellys Perez, NOAA / Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory: "The three-dimensional structure of the tropical circulation cell in the central equatorial Pacific Ocean"

Jun 17, 2008
Jim Lerczak, COAS, OSU: Title TBA

Jul 1, 2008
Kipp Shearman, COAS, OSU: Title TBA

Jul 8, 2008
David Rivas, COAS, OSU: Title TBA

Please contact Andrey Koch for seminar scheduling.