GEOL1520, Spring 2019 — Proceedings

GEOL1520. Ocean Circulation and Climate

Or, Notions for the Motions of the Oceans.
Examines physical characteristics, processes, and dynamics of the global ocean to understand circulation patterns and how they relate to ocean biology, chemistry, and climate change. Assignments address ocean's role in the climate system; ocean observations and models; the origin, distribution, and dynamics of large-scale ocean circulation and water masses; energy and freshwater budgets; and variability of the coupled system on seasonal to centennial timescales e.g. El Niño. Intended for geological and physical sciences undergraduate and graduate students with quantitative skills and an interest in oceans, climate, paleoclimate. Pre-requisite: GEOL 0250, GEOL 0350, PHYS 0720, or MATH 0180. Offered alternate years, previously offered as GEOL1100.

Baylor taught this class in Spring 2019, Spring 2017, Spring 2015, Spring 2013.

Proceedings volumes: Spring 2019, Spring 2017, Spring 2015, Spring 2013, Spring 2010, Spring 2008, Spring 2007.

You can access the syllabus, proceedings, class calendar, notes, and reading.

Notions for the Motions of the Oceans, Volume 7

Issue 1: 3 Kinds of Lies or Inside Joke

• Benoit, J.: ENSO-Related Temperature Anomalies in the Galapagos and Their Relation to Upwellings
• Bodner, A.: Climatology of Mixed Layer Depth in the Vicinity of the Gulf Stream
• Cheung, A.: Effects of noise and sparse spatial coverage on paleoclimate proxy data — climate model comparison
• Klein, S.: Decreasing Salinity in the Mediterranean between 1991 and 2010
• Pierce, E.: Bootstrap Sampling Error of QuikSCAT Wind Speed Measurements Over the Polar Oceans
• Sane, A.: Difficulty with calculating flushing time scales: Who will make it worse: Sparse data or steady state equations?
• Wang, K.: Sea ice variability in the Baffin Bay and its potential influence on water circulation
• Xu, W.: Comparison of January Pacific Sea Surface Temperature between MODIS Observation and ECCO Modeling Results

Issue 2: I Get Around

• Benoit, J.: The Effect of Seasonal Variations in Coastal Upwelling on Precipitation Cycles at the Benguela Current
• Bodner, A.: Seasonal Variations of the Ekman Transport in the California Current
• Klein, S.: Temperature Anomaly off the Western Coast of South America
• Pierce, E.: ECCO model representation of Ekman transport off of Alaska's north slope
• Sane, A.: Ekman transport in the Bay of Bengal
• Wang, K.: Seasonal wind stress and water transport in offshore Northern Baja California
• Xu, W.: Wind Driven Ekman Transport and Upper Ocean Flow in West Coast of South America

Issue 3: Swimming Upstream

• Benoit, J.: Seasonal Meandering in the Kuroshio Extension
• Bodner, A.: Diagnosing Eddy Fluxes in the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre
• Cheung, A.: Analysis on North Atlantic Western Boundary Current Transport at 26.5N using ECCO
• Sane, A.: Sverdrup, Ekman and Geostrophic transport for the East Australian Current system
• Wang, K.: Variabilities of the geostrophic transport of the Gulf Stream and its implications to paleoclimate
• Xu, W.: Meridional Ocean Circulation and Heat Transport in the South Pacific Ocean

Issue 4: Meridional Overturning Circulation or Waves

• Benoit, J.: Interannual Variability in Antarctic Bottom Water Formation 1992-2011
• Bodner, A.: Diagnosing ECCO Model Mixing in the Southern Ocean
• Cheung, A.: Relationship between Pacific decadal variability and subtropical cells during 1992–2011
• Klein, S.: Meridional Overturning in the ECCO Version 4, Release 2 Dataset
• Pierce, E.: A review of internal waves and turbulent mixing in the Arctic Ocean
• Sane, A.: Identifying Rossby Waves in the Pacific Ocean
• Wang, K.: Gulf Stream, Ekman and Sverdrup transport at 26.5N Atlantic and their relationship with AMOC during 2004-2011
• Xu, W.: Propagation of Equatorial Large Scale Zonal Waves and Their Relationship with ENSO Cycle

Important Note from the Editor/Instructor: These papers represent the best efforts of the students of to assimilate and use the information they were learning on the fly. These papers were written under very tight time constraints. Thus, while selected for content that is generally excellent, the reader is encouraged to look at these papers as works in progress and disregard typographical or other minor errors. These papers have all been peer-reviewed by the class and revised afterward.