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1 - Evolution of Lagrangian methods in oceanography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2009

By
T. Rossby
Edited by
Annalisa Griffa ,
A. D. Kirwan, Jr. ,
Arthur J. Mariano ,
Tamay Özgökmen  and
H. Thomas Rossby
T. Rossby
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island, USA
Annalisa Griffa
Affiliation:
University of Miami
A. D. Kirwan, Jr.
Affiliation:
University of Delaware
Arthur J. Mariano
Affiliation:
University of Miami
Tamay Özgökmen
Affiliation:
University of Miami
H. Thomas Rossby
Affiliation:
University of Rhode Island
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Summary

Introduction

A complete description of a dynamical system must include information about two things: its state and its kinetics. The first part defines its condition or state at some instant in time, but nothing about its motion. The latter does the opposite, it tells us how the system is evolving, but nothing about its state. Thus, for a full understanding of a dynamical system, we need information on both. If we consider the ocean as such a system, its state would be determined by the distribution of mass while the kinetics of the system would be given by the distribution of currents. Since the birth of modern oceanography, we have developed an increasingly accurate picture of the state of the ocean, more specifically the distribution of heat and salt: the two properties that determine the mass field and hence the internal forces acting on it. Progress has been much slower – and more recent – with respect to a corresponding description of the kinetics of the ocean. Indeed, our view of the ocean circulation is still incomplete and depends to a significant extent upon assumptions about its internal dynamics in order to estimate ocean currents from the observed mass field. We have employed this methodology out of convenience and necessity because for a very long time we did not have the tools to observe the ocean in motion directly.

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Type
Chapter
Information
Lagrangian Analysis and Prediction of Coastal and Ocean Dynamics , pp. 1 - 38
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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References

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