12.820 | Spring 2007 | Graduate

Turbulence in the Ocean and Atmosphere

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 …
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.
Learning Resource Types
Problem Sets
Lecture Notes
Programming Assignments
Written Assignments
Examples of turbulent flows.
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.)