Oceanography at CU Boulder

The oceans cover about 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, Boulder laboratory scientists, and faculty work together on a wide range of research topics involving the oceans: large-scale dynamics of the ocean; air-sea interaction; diagnostic analysis of ocean data; dynamics of the atmosphere-ocean coupled system; remote sensing of the ocean; sea ice and its role in climate; extended weather and climate prediction; hydrological processes; coastal processes and sediment transports; paleoclimate and paleoceanography; and boundary layer measurement and modeling. Some faculty and students trek to the coast to participate on oceanographic research cruises.

A recent emphasis on ocean science curriculum development has led to new ATOC degree options and courses. In Spring 2007, the Executive Advisory Council on Research and Graduate Education of the CU-Boulder campus approved a Graduate Level Certificate in Oceanography. In Fall 2008, the ATOC faculty approved a Physical Oceanography (PO) track to the core curriculum of required courses for the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Master's Degree and Ph.D. A new ATOC course to introduce the community is Seminar: Oceanography in Boulder.

Faculty in ATOC with Oceanographic Research and Teaching Interests:

John T. Andrews, Fellow and Professor Emeritus, INSTAAR and Department of Geological Sciences, ATOC affiliate faculty.

• Glacial and marine sedimentology and chronologies
• high-resolution marine studies
• Personal page

William Emery, Professor, CCAR and Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, ATOC affiliate faculty.

• 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
• Personal homepage
• Realtime ocean surface currents for the U.S. east and west coasts.

Baylor Fox-Kemper, Fellow and Assistant Professor, CIRES and Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences

• Physics of the ocean and its role in climate
• Ocean modeling and theory
• Computational oceanography
• Personal homepage

Weiqing Han, Assistant Professor, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences

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

John E. Hart, Professor Emeritus, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences

• Dynamic oceanography
• Geophysical fluid dynamics
• Personal homepage

Lakshmi Kantha, Professor, CCAR and Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, ATOC affiliate faculty.

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

James Maslanik, Research Professor, CCAR, ATOC affiliate faculty.

• Polar climatology
• Remote sensing
• Regional modeling of sea ice and land surface processes
• Personal homepage

Ralph Milliff, Research Scientist and Associate Professor Adjunct, CORA and Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, ATOC adjunct faculty.

• Data assimilation
• Bayesian methods
• Geophysical fluid dynamics
• Personal homepage

Jeffrey Weiss, Associate Chair, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences

• Geophysical fluid dynamics
• Predictability and turbulence
• Personal homepage
• High-Performance Computation Methods for Coupled Fields and GAFF Turbulence

2007 CU Campus Oceanographers Luncheon. Left, from back to front: William Emery, Ralph Milliff, Weiqing Han, Dax Matthews; Right, from back to front: Benet Duncan, Thaned Rojsiraphisal, James Syvitski, Ian Crocker, Brian Toon.

Other Faculty at CU-Boulder with Oceanographic Research and Teaching Interests:

Mark J. Ablowitz, Professor, Department of Applied Mathematics

• Water Waves
• Solitons
• Personal page

David M. Anderson, Fellow and Adjoint Associate Professor, INSTAAR and Department of Geological Sciences

• Paleoceanography
• Marine geology
• Quantitative paleoenvironmental reconstruction
• Personal page

George Born, Director and Professor, CCAR and Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences

• Satellite oceanography
• Personal homepage

Mel Cundiff, Associate Professor, Deparment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

• Marine biology
• Coral reef ecology
• Personal homepage

Albin J. Gasiewski, Director and Professor, CET and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

• Passive and active remote sensing
• Radiative transfer theory and applications
• Electronics and airborne sensors
• Meteorology and oceanography
• Personal homepage

Anne Jennings, Fellow and Assistant Professor, INSTAAR and Department of Geological Sciences

• Paleoceanography
• Glacial history
• Foraminifera
• Personal page

Keith Julien, Professor and Graduate Studies Chair, Department of Applied Mathematics

• Dynamics and instability processes in geophysical and astrophysical fluid dynamics
• Personal homepage

Robert Leben, Associate Research Professor, CCAR and Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences

• 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
• Personal homepage

Scott J. Lehman, Fellow and Research Professor, INSTAAR and Department of Geological Sciences

• Paleoclimatology
• Paleoceanography
• Radiocarbon research
• Personal page

Tom Marchitto, Fellow and Assistant Professor, INSTAAR and Department of Geological Sciences

• Paleoceanography
• Past ocean chemistry
• Quaternary paleoclimate
• Personal page

Kamran Mohseni, Associate Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences

• Mobile sensor networking platforms (airborne and underwater)
• Fluid dynamics
• Personal homepage

Steve Nerem, Fellow and Associate Professor, CIRES, CCAR, and Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences

• Remote sensing: altimetry, geodesy
• Sea level change
• Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE)
• Personal page

Harvey Segur, Professor, Department of Applied Mathematics

• Nonlinear waves and instabilities
• Personal page

Mark Serreze, Fellow and Associate Research Professor, CIRES and Department of Geography

• Arctic climate variability and change
• Arctic atmosphere-ocean-ice interactions
• Personal homepage

James Syvitski, Fellow, Former Director, and Professor, INSTAAR and Department of Geological Sciences

• Discharge dynamics of global rivers and the sediment load they carry
• Morphology and deposits of continental margins
• Impact of high-energy weather events on our coastline
• Impact of ice sheets on high-latitude shelves and slopes
• Personal homepage

Other Oceanographic Research in Boulder

NCAR, including

• Dave Bailey,
• Frank Bryan,
• Gokhan Danabasoglu,
• Peter Gent,
• Marika Holland,
• Bill Holland,
• Markus Jochum,
• Brian Kauffman,
• Bill Large,
• Keith Lindsay,
• Synte Peacock,
• Steve Yeager,
• Clara Deser.

NOAA-ESRL, CIRES, and CIRES Climate Diagnostics Center, including

• Mike Alexander,
• Joe Barsugli,
• Antonietta Capotondi,
• Gil Compo,
• Simon de Szoeke,
• Chris Fairall,
• Oleg Godin,
• Vladimir Irisov,
• George Kiladis,
• Konstantin Naugolnykh,
• Matthew Newman,
• Lev Ostrovsky,
• Cecile Penland,
• Ola Persson, ATOC affiliate faculty
• Prashant Sardeshmukh.
• Amy Solomon,
• De-Zheng Sun,
• Colm Sweeney,
• Alexander Voronovich.
• Ed Walsh,
• Gary Wick.