MEA 540

Principles of Physical Oceanography

Section: 001

Course Description

Introduction to principles and practice of physical oceanography. The equation of state of seawater; energy transfer to the ocean by thermal, radiative and mechanical processes; the heat budget; oceanic boundary conditions; geographical distributionof oceanic properties; observational methods; conservation equations; simple waves and tides; physical oceanography of North Carolina coastal zone. Application of Fourier analysis techniques to interpretation of low-frequency motions in ocean and atmosphere. Review of Fourier method. Filtering of tidal signals. Spectral estimates and calculation of current ellipses. Identification of coherent motions and their empirical orthogonal modes. Data from field experiments used in lectures and homeworkassignments. Credit is not allowed for both MEA 460 and MEA 540