Fluid Mechanics Webinars: Baylor Fox-Kemper talk video
Speaker: Baylor Fox-Kemper, Brown University, USA
Date/Time: Friday 29th May, 2020. 4:00pm BST/11am EDT
Title: Affronting Ocean Models: Submesoscale Interactions between Fronts, Instabilities, and Waves
Video: cambridge.org/fluidwebinar/fox-kemper
Abstract: Ocean fronts - sharp horizontal gradients in temperature, salinity, and density - are a key feature of the upper ocean that affect the transport of pollutants and the nature of near surface flows. I will highlight some of the recent modeling and theoretical work our group and collaborators have taken on to understand how fronts, frontal instabilities and turbulence, and surface waves interact. Traditional geophysical boundary layer theory neglects horizontal variations, and so is unable to capture frontal dynamics. Some consequences of these features found in large scale modeling and observations of oil, plastics and biological tracer dispersion; boundary layers; fluid energy cycling and dissipation statistics; and finally climate sensitivity will be elucidated.