Quasi-Balanced Circulations in Oceans and Atmospheres
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this graduate course on the dynamics of large-scale circulations in the ocean and atmosphere. Topics include mass and momentum conservation, hydrostatic and geostrophic balance, pressure and other vertical coordinates, and the fundamental conservation and balance principles governing large-scale flow. The course examines how quasi-balanced eddies are generated and dissipated and how quasi-balanced systems reach equilibrium. Course materials include lecture notes and problem sets covering these theoretical frameworks, with references to oceanic and atmospheric examples, computational models, and rotating tank experiments developed in the companion laboratory course, Large-scale Flow Dynamics Lab. The course is delivered as open courseware, freely available with no certificate offered. It suits students with a background in fluid dynamics who want a rigorous treatment of geophysical fluid dynamics at an advanced level.