Oceanography at CU Boulder

The oceans cover approximately 71% of the earth's surface. They have an enormous heat capacity and thus play a crucial role in global climate. Interactions between the ocean and atmosphere are responsible for global phenomena such as El Niño. Understanding ocean circulation, dynamics, thermodynamics, and mixed layer processes is crucial for understanding climate variability and prediction.

Graduate students, research staff, and faculty work together on a wide range of research topics: large-scale dynamics of the ocean and the atmosphere; air-sea interaction; radiative transfer and remote sensing of the ocean and the atmosphere; sea ice and its role in climate; cloud-climate interactions; atmospheric chemistry and aerosols; atmospheric technology; extended weather and climate prediction; hydrological processes; and boundary layer measurement and modeling.

In spring 2007, the Executive Advisory Council on Research and Graduate Education of the CU-Boulder campus approved a Graduate Level Certificate in Oceanography.

CU Campus Oceanographers Luncheon. Left, from back to front: William Emery, Ralph Milliff, Weiqing Han, Dax Mathews; Right, from back to front: Benet Duncan, Thaned Rojsiraphisal, James Syvitski, Ian Crocker, Brian Toon. Professors Lakshmi Kantha and Robert Leben could not attend.

Faculty at CU-Boulder:

William Emery, Professor, Aerospace Engineering Sciences

Areas of interest:

• Remote Sensing of the earth, its atmospheres and oceans
• Development of receiving and processing systems for data from earth
  orbiting satellites
• Data analysis in physical oceanography

Web links:

• Personal homepage
• Realtime ocean surface currents for the U.S. east and west coasts.
• A draft set of notes and power point presentations from my descriptive physical oceanography text

Weiqing Han, Assistant Professor, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (ATOC)

Areas of Interest:

• Dynamics of the tropical ocean circulation
• Coupled ocean-atmopsheric dynamics
• Process studies
• Numerical modeling
• Air-sea interaction

Web links:

• Personal homepage

Lakshmi Kantha, Professor, Aerospace Engineering Sciences

Areas of Interest:

• Numerical models of the oceans adn related physical processes
• Coupled regional models of ice-ocean-atmosphere interactions
• Turbulence and mixing in the oceans and the atmosphere
• Wave motions, tides, altimetry

Web links:

• Personal homepage

Robert Leben, Associate Research Professor, Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research (CCAR)

Areas of interest:

• Satellite altimetry and its application to ocean circulation monitoring
• Computational fluid dynamics and digital signal processing techniques and their application to problems in geophysical fluid dynamics and aerodynamics

Web links:

• Personal homepage

Ralph Milliff, Associate Professor Adjunct, Department of Atmopsheric and Oceanic Sciences (ATOC)

Areas of interest:

• Research Scientist, Colorado Research Associates (CoRA)

Web links:

• Personal homepage

James Syvitski, Director, Institute of Arctic & Alpine Research (INSTAAR)

Areas of interest:

• The discharge dynamics of global rivers and the sediment load they carry
• The morphology and deposits of continental margins
• The impact of high-energy weather events on our coastline
• The impact of ice sheets on high-latitude shelves and slopes

Web links:

• Personal homepage
• Fellow and Director of INSTAAR
• Delta Force
• INSTAAR, The State of the Institute

Jeffrey Weiss, Associate Director, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (ATOC)

Areas of interest:

• Geophysical fluid dynamics
• Predictability and turbulence

Web links:

• Personal homepage
• High-Performance Computation Methods for Coupled Fields and GAFF Turbulence

Oceanography in Boulder

• NCAR, Oceanography Section
• NOAA-CIRES Climate Diagnostics Center