Rotating Hydraulics: Nonlinear Topographic Effects in the Ocean and Atmosphere: 36 (Atmospheric and Oceanographic Sciences Library, 36) - Softcover

Pratt, Lawrence L.J.; Whitehead, John A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1493950436 ISBN 13: 9781493950430

Publisher: Springer, 2016

Synopsis

What is “rotating hydraulics” and why would anyone wish to read a book on the subject? Over the past three decades, the term has come to describe the physics of overflows and other choked flows of the ocean and atmosphere that are broad enough to be influenced by Earth’s rotation. The currents and winds in question typically have high speeds, subcritical-to-supercritical transitions, shocks, and other objects familiar to open-channel or aeronautical engineers. Bores, int- sions, steepening waveforms and separation phenomena are considered part of the subject because they tend to arise within these flows. Mixing with neighboring fluid often occurs as the result of wave breaking or of instabilities associated with the high velocities. Interest in the field is often excited by the dramatic and strongly nonlinear character of the features in question and by the mixing and its downstream consequences. The subject is also important for the study of the Earth’s climate because of the special opportunities for observation and long term monitoring made possible as a result of the choking effect. This book is concerned primarily with the theory of rotating hydraulics. However, the Introduction contains an overview of the observations that have motivated much of the theoretical development, and more detailed case studies appear later in the book. Though both the atmosphere and the ocean are covered, the latter is the source of the most numerous examples.

About this title

About the Author

Lawrence Pratt is currently a senior scientist in the Department of Physical Oceanography at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. His main research interests cover the dynamics of meandering currents, especially the Gulf Stream and other separated western boundary currents.

John A. Whitehead is currently a senior scientist in the Department of Physical Oceanography at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

From the Back Cover

Larry Pratt received his Ph. D. in physical oceanography in the Woods Hole/MIT Joint Program in 1982. He then served as a research associate and assistant research professor at the University of Rhode Island before joining the scientific staff at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where he is now a senior scientist. He is editor of The Physical Oceanography of Sea Straits and has authored or co-authored numerous articles on hydraulic effects in the ocean.

 

J. A. (Jack) Whitehead received his Ph. D. in engineering and applied science from Yale University in 1968. After postdoctoral work and serving as assistant research geophysicist at the Institute of Geophysical and Planetary Physics at UCLA, he joined the scientific staff at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where he is now a Senior Scientist. He has authored or co-authored numerous articles on hydraulic effects in the ocean.

 

Hydraulic effects can occur when high-speed ocean currents and atmospheric winds encounter strong topographic features. This book contains a deep and extensive discussion of geophysical flows that are broad enough to be influenced by Earth?s rotation and strong enough to experience classical hydraulic effects such as critical control and hydraulic jumps. Examples include deep overflows and coastal currents in the ocean and winds in the coastal marine layer. The material is appropriate for students at the graduate or advanced undergraduate level who have some elementary knowledge of fluid mechanics. Reviews of geophysical observations and of the hydraulics of flow with no background rotation are followed by chapters on models of currents in rotating channels, shock waves and time dependence, coastal flow, two-layer stratification, and jets. Although the primary focus is on the theory, a number of case studies, including the Faroe Bank overflow and the California coastal marine layer winds, are presented along with numerous laboratory experiments. Exercises are presented at the end of most sections. The presentation should allow thereader to develop a thorough understanding of the fundamentals of the hydraulics of rotating flows.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1493950436
• ISBN 13: 9781493950430
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 605