Course: Fundamentals of Ocean Forecasting

You now know what ocean models are, the types that exist, and why we need them. In this lecture, Fernand Assene opens up the model and looks inside – at …

The first lecture explained what an ocean model is. This one, again with Fernand Assene, asks why we need them at all – what is it about the ocean, and …

In the first part, Fernand Assene defined what an ocean model is and set out its mathematical foundation. This second part answers a natural follow-up: how many types of ocean …

Welcome to the first lecture of the week. Fernand Assene begins with the most basic question of all: what exactly is an ocean model? An ocean model is a mathematical …

Welcome to Week 3. In Week 2, you built up the physics of the ocean – the forces, balances, waves, and tides that make the sea move. This week, we …

You’ve reached the end of Week 2 – and with it, a real change in how you can look at the ocean. At the start of the week, a current …

Tides are the rhythmic rise and fall of the sea – the most predictable ocean motion of all, and one of the oldest studied. In this final lecture, Serena Illig …

The waves in the last chapter broke on beaches. The waves in this one can stretch across an entire ocean basin and take months to cross it. To understand them, …

So far this week you’ve studied currents – water moving from place to place. Waves are different: when a wave rolls past, the water mostly stays put, and it is …

Stand at the shore and waves seem endless – arriving one after another, breaking on the beach, sometimes gently, sometimes with real force. That simple sight raises a surprisingly deep …

The waves in the last lecture broke on beaches. The waves in this one can span an ocean basin and take months to cross it. Serena Illig now zooms out …

Geostrophic balance explained the currents that follow sea-level slopes. But what sets those slopes up in the first place, and what drives the ocean where the surface is nearly flat? …

In the last lecture you saw geostrophic balance – the flow that follows sea-level slopes. Now Gael Alory turns to the other great driver of ocean circulation: the wind. This …

In the last lecture you met the forces that move the ocean. Now we watch two of them settle into a balance – and that balance turns out to govern …

In the last lecture you met the forces that move the ocean. Now Gael Alory shows what happens when two of them – the pressure gradient force and the Coriolis …