Geophysical fluid dynamics
transport and mixing, horizontal convection
Geophysical fluid dynamics (GFD) is the study of the dynamics of flows influenced by rotation or stratification or both––on Earth and beyond. GFD is also an approach to solving ocean and atmospheric dynamics problems, building a hierarchy of analytical and computational models. I’m interested in many GFD problems, most of which shine light on fundamental issues of oceanic and climate sciences.
Two regimes of mixing: (a) non-local
mixing (stirring dominated by large scales) and (b) local mixing (stirring dominated by small scales).
The eddy diffusivity is the same in both cases, albeit the spectrum of the flow
(and thus the distortion of tracer contours) is wildly different.
Understanding those mixing regimes is critical to developing better
parameterizations for climate models.