Professor Christopher K.R.T. Jones — Recipient of the 2020 MPE Prize
Professor Chris Jones is the Bill Guthridge Distinguished Professor in Mathematics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Director of the Mathematics and Climate Research Network (MCRN). The 2020 MPE Prize recognizes Professor Jones for his many significant contributions to climate science and the mathematics of planet Earth.
Category Archives: Ocean
Atmosphere and Ocean Dynamics through the Lens of Model Systems
The atmosphere and ocean are central components of the climate system, where each of these components is affected by numerous significant factors through highly nonlinear relationships. It would be impossible to combine all of the important interactions into a single model. Therefore, determining the contribution of each factor, in both a quantitative and qualitative sense, is necessary for the development of a predictive model, not to mention a better understanding, of the climate system. Continue reading
Posted in Atmosphere, Climate Modeling, Ocean
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Ocean Acidification and Phytoplankton
The health of the world’s oceans has been in the news a lot over the last few months. Recent reports suggest that the oceans are absorbing carbon dioxide at unprecedented rates. The ocean is the dominant player in the global carbon cycle, and the sequestering of more carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, sounds like a good thing. However, researchers have measured significant increases in ocean acidity, and they worry this will have a negative impact on marine life, especially phytoplankton. Continue reading
Posted in Biosphere, Inverse Problems, Ocean
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DIMACS/CCICADA Collaboration on REU and Other Sustainability Projects
The Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science (DIMACS) and the Command Control Interoperability Center for Advanced Data Analysis (CCICADA), both based at Rutgers University, have collaborated on some recent activities to enhance the summer experience for several undergraduate students participating in the DIMACS/CCICADA Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. DIMACS and CCICADA recently co-hosted a workshop on Science and Technology Innovations in Hurricane Sandy Research. Continue reading
Posted in Astrophysics, Atmosphere, Biodiversity, Biogeochemistry, Biology, Biosphere, Carbon Cycle, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Modeling, Climate System, Complex Systems, Computational Science, Conference, Conference Announcement, Conference Report, Cryosphere, Data, Data Assimilation, Data Visualization, Dimension Reduction, Disease Modeling, Dynamical Systems, Ecology, Economics, Energy, Epidemiology, Evolution, Extreme Events, Finance, General, Geophysics, Imaging, Inverse Problems, Machine Learning, Mathematics, Meteorology, Natural Disasters, Networks, Ocean, Optimization, Paleoclimate, Patterns, Political Systems, Probability, Public Event, Public Health, Renewable Energy, Resource Management, Risk Analysis, Social Systems, Statistics, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Tipping Phenomena, Transportation, Uncertainty Quantification, Weather, Workshop Announcement, Workshop Report
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SIAM News — Examining the Dynamics of Ocean Mixing
“The science is clear,” climate scientist Emily Shuckburgh told an audience of nearly 800 people at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts on March 4. Continue reading
Posted in Climate, Ocean
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Some universality in fractal sea coasts?
Sandy coasts have a smooth profile while rocky coasts have a fractal nature. One characteristic feature of a rocky coast is that new details appear when we zoom in on it. And if we were to measure the length of the coast, the length would increase significantly when zooming in on the details. Continue reading
Posted in Geophysics, Ocean
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The Great Wave Explained by Directional Focusing
One of the most famous images in Japanese art is the Great Wave off Kanagawa, a woodblock print by the Japanese artist Hokusai. The print is also famous in mathematics: the structure of the breaking wave at its crest illustrates features of self-similarity, and the large amplitude of the wave has led it to be interpreted as a rogue wave generated from nonlinear wave effects. Continue reading
Posted in Geophysics, Ocean
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Atmospheric waves and the organization of tropical weather
Though waves of one sort or another are a ubiquitous part of our daily experience, we have to get on with our lives, and therefore tend not to think of the wavelike nature of daily phenomena. Those fortunate among us who can escape to the shore on a hot August week can then take the time to observe the sea and the waves she sends us. Continue reading
Posted in Atmosphere, Meteorology, Ocean
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Nonlinear Waves and the Growth of a Tsunami
This past week at AIM Mark Ablowitz told me about an interesting article (with beautiful pictures) he wrote with Douglas Baldwin called “Nonlinear shallow ocean-wave silicon interactions on flat beaches.” The propagation of these waves may contribute to the growth of tsunami waves. Continue reading
Posted in Geophysics, Ocean
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There Will Always be a Gulf Stream — An Exercise in Singular Perturbation Technique
One hears occasionally in the popular media that one possible consequence of global warming might be the disappearance of the Gulf Stream. This makes physical oceanographers cringe. The Gulf Stream and its analogs in other ocean basins exist for fundamental physical reasons. Climate change may well bring changes in the Gulf Stream. It may not be in the same place, may not be of the same strength or have the same temperature and salinity characteristics, but as long as the continents bound the great ocean basins, the sun shines, the earth turns toward the east and the wind blows in response, there will be a Gulf Stream. Continue reading
Posted in Geophysics, Mathematics, Ocean
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Ice Floes, Coriolis Acceleration and Estimating the Viscosity of Air and Water
I have wanted to run this story down since I saw the reference in Lamb’s Hydrodynamics to a paper by G. I. Taylor that contains a description of what oceanic and atmospheric scientists call “Ekman layers.” Physical oceanographers learn early … Continue reading
Posted in Atmosphere, Geophysics, Mathematics, Ocean
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