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If you are a prospective student or if you are looking for open positions, please, contact Prof. Claudia Pasquero, claudia.pasquero@uci.edu. We currently have an open position for a postdoctoral scholar to study the effects of the marine biosphere on ocean mixing. Individuals with numerical programming and fluid dynamical skills and knowledge are particularly welcome. - Research ideas for prospective graduate students SEA ICE MELTING: Thermal and gravitational potential energy changes in the Arctic Ocean. INTERANNUAL CLIMATE VARIABILITY: Feedbacks among upper ocean heat content, mean winds, and extreme winds. - Summer projects for undergraduates [REU Program] ENERGY SOURCES FOR THE OCEAN DEEP CIRCULATION: THE ROLE OF SURFACE MIXING. In recent years, a vast discussion on the energetics of the oceanic overturning circulation has been fueled by new data, theories, and models. It's becoming clear that mixing confined in the upper ocean plays a central role in setting the deep circulation that is observed. In this project, a mixed layer model will be run under conditions typical of different geographic locations and an estimate of the entrainment rate of cold water from the base of the mixed layer will be obtained. A global map of gravitational potential energy source/sink associated to this entrainment will be produced, and its sensitivity to wind anomalies will be investigated. The successfull candidate will run the matlab code for the model, and will manipulate climatological oceanic and atmospheric datasets used to force the model. (Project time allocations: Computer lab = 100%, Chemistry lab = 0%, Fieldwork = 0%) BIOGENIC TURBULENCE IN THE OCEAN Biologically generated turbulence has been recently proposed as a significant contributor to the mechanical energy budget of the ocean (Dewar et al, Journal of Marine Research 2006, Kunze et al., Science 2006). It has been suggested that marine organisms have a profound impact on the deep overturning circulation and on the mixing rate among different water masses. Very few direct measurements of biogenic turbulence are available. An important role in the advancement of the study can be played by numerical models, as a wide range of species and flow conditions can be studied. In this project, a 3 dimensional fluid dynamical model will be numerically integrated, where the motion of the water induced by a moving particle (e.g. krill) is directly resolved. The succesfull candidate will run different numerical experiments and analyze their results, to obtain an estimate for the biological turbulence generation in the upper ocean. (Project time allocations: Computer lab = 100%, Chemistry lab = 0%, Fieldwork = 0%) |
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