Wave Motions in the Ocean and Atmosphere
MIT OpenCourseWare's graduate course on geophysical fluid waves, covering phase and group velocity, gravity wave dynamics and kinematics, dispersion, energy flux, and initial value problems. The syllabus moves through internal and inertial waves, then Kelvin, Poincare, and Rossby waves in both homogeneous and stratified fluids, applying the Laplace tidal equations to equatorial waves. Later sessions treat resonant interactions, potential vorticity, wave-mean flow interactions, and instability. Materials include lecture notes and problem sets drawn from MIT's Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences department, free to access under a Creative Commons license with no certificate offered. The course assumes prior background in fluid dynamics and is pitched at an advanced level, building a mathematical toolkit for understanding how waves move through the rotating, stratified fluids of the ocean and atmosphere.