Courses:

Course Info

• Course Number / Code:
• 12.802 (Spring 2008) 
• Course Title:
• Wave Motion in the Ocean and the Atmosphere 
• Course Level:
• Graduate 
• Offered by :
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
  Massachusetts, United States  
• Department:
• Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences 
• Course Introduction:
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  12.802 Wave Motion in the Ocean and the Atmosphere
  
  
  
  

  Spring 2008

  
  
  

  
  
  

  Course Highlights

  
  
  

  
  
  12.802 Wave Motion in the Ocean and the Atmosphere
  
  
  
  

  Spring 2008

  
  
  

  

  A Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) buoy being deployed in the Pacific Ocean from the NOAA ship Ronald H. Brown. (Image courtesy of NOAA.)

  
  
  

  Course Description

  
  
  

  This course is an introduction to basic ideas of geophysical wave motion in rotating, stratified, and rotating-stratified fluids. Subject begins with general wave concepts of phase and group velocity. It also covers the dynamics and kinematics of gravity waves with a focus on dispersion, energy flux, initial value problems, etc. Also addressed are subject foundation used to study internal and inertial waves, Kelvin, Poincare, and Rossby waves in homogeneous and stratified fluids. Laplace tidal equations are applied to equatorial waves. Other topics include: resonant interactions, potential vorticity, wave-mean flow interactions, and instability.