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Books > Earth & environment > Earth sciences > The hydrosphere > Oceanography (seas)
Data assimilation is considered a key component of numerical ocean
model development and new data acquisition strategies. The basic
concept of data assimilation is to combine real observations via
estimation theory with dynamic models. Related methodologies exist
in meteorology, geophysics and engineering. Of growing importance
in physical oceanography, data assimilation can also be exploited
in biological and chemical oceanography. Such techniques are now
recognized as essential to understand the role of the ocean in a
global change perspective.
This monograph is an attempt to compile the present state of knowledge on ocean wave analysis and prediction. The emphasis of the monograph is on the development of ocean wave analysis and predic tion procedures and their utility for real-time operations and appli cations. Most of the material in the monograph is derived from journal articles, research reports and recent conference proceedings; some of the basic material is extracted from standard text books on physical oceanography and wind waves. Ocean wave analysis and prediction is becoming an important activity in the meteorological and oceanographic services of many countries. The present status of ocean wave prediction may be compar able to the status of numerical weather prediction of the mid-sixties and early seventies when a number of weather prediction models were developed for research purposes, many of which were later put into operational use by meteorological services of several countries. The increased emphasis on sea-state analysis and prediction has created a need for a ready reference material on various ocean wave analysis and modelling techniques and their utility. The present monograph is aimed at fulfilling this need. The monograph should prove useful to the ocean wave modelling community as well as to marine forecasters, coastal engineers and offshore technologists. The monograph could also be used for a senior undergraduate (or a first year graduate) level course in ocean wave modelling and marine meteorology.
The earth where we live is the only planet of our solar system that holds a mass of water we know as the ocean, covering 70.8% of the earth's surface with a mean depth of 3,800 m. When using the term ocean, we mean not only the water and what it contains, but also the bottom that supports the water mass above and the atmosphere on the sea surface. Modern oceanography thus deals with the water, the bottom of the ocean, and the air thereon. In addition, varied interactions take place between the ocean and the land so that such interface areas are also extended domains of oceanography. In ancient times our ancestors took an interest in nearshore seas, making them an object of constant study. Deep seas, on the other hand, largely remained an area beyond their reach. Modern academic research on deep seas is said to have been started by the first round-the-world voyage of Her Majesty's R/V Challenger I from 1872 to 1876. It has been only 120 years since the British ship leftPortsmouth on this voyage, so oceanography can thus be considered still a young science on its way to full maturity.
Preface This book is the culmination of a workshop jointly organized by NATO and CEC on Climate-Ocean Interaction which was held at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University during 26-30 September 1988. The objective of the ARW was to assess the current status of research on climate-ocean interaction, with a major focus on the development of coupled atmosphere-ocean-ice models and their application in the study of past, present and possible future climates. This book contains 16 chapters divided into four parts: Introduction; Observations of the Climate of the Ocean; Modelling the Atmospheric, Oceanic and Sea Ice Components of the Climatic System; and Simulating the Variability of Climate on Short, Medium and Long Time Scales. A fifth part contains the reports of the five Working Groups on: Climate Observations, Modelling, ENSO Modelling and Prediction, Climate-Ocean Interaction on TIme Scales of Decades to Centuries, and Impact of Paleoclimatic Proxy Data on Climate Modelling. Preface ix Acknowledgements I thank Howard Cattle and Neil Wells for their guidance and assistance as members of the Workshop Organizing Committee. I particularly thank Michael Davey for all his efforts as Local Organizer to make the ARW a success. I also thank the staff of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University, for their help with the arrangements for the ARW.
Subtropical convergence regions in the southwestern Atlantic have a
high biological productivity, and are important as nursery and
feeding areas and as reproduction grounds for fishery stocks of
subtropical and antarctic origin.
The present state of the art of dam engineering has been ronmental, and political factors, which, though important, attained by a continuous search for new ideas and methods are covered in other publications. while incorporating the lessons of the past. In the last 20 The rapid progress in recent times has resulted from the years particularly there have been major innovations, due combined efforts of engineers and associated scientists, as largely to a concerted effort to blend the best of theory and exemplified by the authorities who have contributed to this practice. Accompanying these achievements, there has been book. These individuals have brought extensive knowledge a significant trend toward free interchange among the pro to the task, drawn from experience throughout the world. fessional disciplines, including open discussion of prob With the convergence of such distinguished talent, the op lems and their solutions. The inseparable relationships of portunity for accomplishment was substantial. I gratefully hydrology, geology, and seismology to engineering have acknowledge the generous cooperation of these writers, and been increasingly recognized in this field, where progress am indebted also to other persons and organizations that is founded on interdisciplinary cooperation. have allowed reference to their publications; and I have This book presents advances in dam engineering that attempted to acknowledge this obligation in the sections have been achieved in recent years or are under way. At where the material is used. These courtesies are deeply ap tention is given to practical aspects of design, construction, preciated."
This textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students presents a multidisciplinary approach to understanding ocean circulation and how it drives and controls marine biogeochemistry and biological productivity at a global scale. Background chapters on ocean physics, chemistry and biology provide students with the tools to examine the range of large-scale physical and dynamic phenomena that control the ocean carbon cycle and its interaction with the atmosphere. Throughout the text observational data is integrated with basic physical theory to address cutting-edge research questions in ocean biogeochemistry. Simple theoretical models, data plots and schematic illustrations summarise key results and connect the physical theory to real observations. Advanced mathematics is provided in boxes and appendices where it can be drawn on to assist with the worked examples and homework exercises available online. Further reading lists for each chapter and a comprehensive glossary provide students and instructors with a complete learning package.
This 1971 volume presents the proceedings of a Symposium of Micropalaeontology of Marine Bottom Sediments held in Cambridge, England, in September 1967. The collection and paleontological interpretations of deep-sea sediments had only been carried out intensively for the twenty years preceding the book's publication, and it provides a summary of the state of knowledge in this field as it stood. Beginning with a consideration of the organisms in relation to the water in which they live, successive chapters deal with the descent of the skeletons to the sea floor, their entombment in the sediments and their interpretation to elucidate the history of the oceans. It is written by many of the specialists responsible for the development of this field and includes numerous Russian contributions. This book became the definitive compendium for students and workers in oceanography and palaeontology, and is still a useful resource today.
Persistent organic contaminants, which are bioaccumulative and toxic are a concern for the ecosystems and human health and are regulated under international law (global and regional conventions, besides other). If semivolatile, they cycle in different environmental compartments and follow complex transport pathways. The ocean is believed to play a key role in the cycling by accumulating and storing the contaminant and providing a transport medium. But substance fate in the marine environment is not fully understood yet. Here, the global multicompartment chemistry-transport model MPI-MCTM is used to study the fate of organic pollutants in the marine and total environment. For the first time historical emission data are used in spatially-resolved long-term simulations of an insecticide, DDT, and an industrial chemical, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). The model results give new insights into the cycling of these substances as different spatial and process resolutions were tested. E.g. for DDT the model results show saturation and reversal of air-sea exchange, which was not indicated by any other study before.
This advanced textbook on modeling, data analysis and numerical techniques for marine science has been developed from a course taught by the authors for many years at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. The first part covers statistics: singular value decomposition, error propagation, least squares regression, principal component analysis, time series analysis and objective interpolation. The second part deals with modeling techniques: finite differences, stability analysis and optimization. The third part describes case studies of actual ocean models of ever increasing dimensionality and complexity, starting with zero-dimensional models and finishing with three-dimensional general circulation models. Throughout the book hands-on computational examples are introduced using the MATLAB programming language and the principles of scientific visualization are emphasised. Ideal as a textbook for advanced students of oceanography on courses in data analysis and numerical modeling, the book is also an invaluable resource for a broad range of scientists undertaking modeling in chemical, biological, geological and physical oceanography.
This 2005 book gives a comprehensive overview of measurement techniques and theories for marine turbulence and mixing processes. It describes the processes which control the mixing of greenhouse gases, nutrients, trace elements, and hazardous substances in our oceans and shelf seas - from local to planetary scales. These processes buffer climate changes and are centrally important for regional to global ecosystem dynamics. The publication also contains source codes of turbulence models and models of the upper-ocean mixing layer (COHERENS and GOTM), and observational data sets of turbulence characteristics or corresponding proxies of waters from all over the world. These can be found at www.cambridge.org/9780521153720. Written by a team of 53 world-leading experts, it represents a rich source of data and methods for students and scientists in oceanography, hydrology, limnology, and meteorology, as well as marine, naval and civil engineers.
Increasing population, expanding industry and commerce, and tourism are placing added pressures on an already highly-utilized coastal zone. This book, through a series of case studies, illustrates the variety of changes already made along the coastlines of the world. The examples used are mainly from China, Japan, The Netherlands, and the United States, all countries with extensively engineered shorelines. Modifications emphasized include those associated with protection against coastal erosion, building of artificial beaches and islands, reclamation for aquaculture and agriculture, and the construction of harbors. The information in this book should be useful for all planners and engineers involved in the construction of coastal engineering works and for students interested in coastal modification.
A coastal sea area usually indicates a sea area between a continental shelf break with a water depth of about 200 m and the land shore. About 70% of global fish resources spend part of their life cycle in the coastal seas, which accounts for 90% of marine biomass yield. Freshwater and nutrients from the land have a great influence on the coastal seas, especially since more than half the human population lives within 100 km of a coast. Chemical reactions occur there rapidly between substances from the land as they encounter substances from the ocean. In terms of physics, a coastal sea acts as a boundary layer and kinetic energy is actively exchanged there. But if coastal oceanography were to be summed up in a single sentence, it would be the study that quantitatively makes clear the material transport in the coastal sea area'. Because the physical, chemical and biological processes relate to the material transport in the sea, it can be said the coastal oceanography is a genuinely interdisciplinary study. This book clarifies the quantitative material transport processes in the coastal sea area, mainly from a physical viewpoint.
Annals of natural disasters have always caused common interest. Scientists and specialists of various domains, teachers, students, post-graduates, journalists .. and merely inquisitive can find useful and didactic information in such annals~ Sad experience of the natural disasters endured gives very important material for humanity. It allows us not only to understand better the phenomenon itself, but also to prepare ourselves for future cataclysms, which our "Mother-Nature" is so rich in. The book by Sergey Soloviev and a group of his collaborators represents a detailed description of tsunami waves and accompanying phenomena in the Mediterranean Sea over a period of approximately four thousand years. Sergey Soloviev, the founder and recognised leader of the Russian scientific school of tsunami researchers, was unable to see the publication of this book, passing away on March 9, 1994. However, his ample experience in investigation and systematisation of tsunami waves for the Pacific area [Soloviev and Go, 1974, 1975; Soloviev, Go and Kim, 1986] has been widely used in compiling this book. The Mediterranean coasts are the cradle of civilisation. Written accounts of past disasters in this region of the Earth are rather numerous and highly reliable. Therefore the results of the tsunami study in the Mediterranean Sea are of specific value both for the scientific community and for humanity at large.
This volume summarises the materials presented at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Sea-Dumped Chemical Munitions, held in Kaliningrad (Moscow Region), Russia, in January 1995. The conference was sponsored by the NATO Division of Scientific and Environmental Affairs in the framework of its outreach programme to develop co-operation between NATO member countries and the Cooperation Partner countries in the area of disarmament technologies. The problem of the ecological threat posed by chemical weapons (CW) dumped in the seas after the Second World War deserves considerable international attention: the amount of these weapons, many of them having been captured from the German Army, is assessed at more than three times as much as the total chemical arsenals reported by the United States and Russia. They were disposed of in the shallow depths of North European seas - areas of active fishing - in close proximity to densely populated coastlines, with no consideration of the long-term consequences. The highly toxic material have time and again showed up, for instance when retrieved occasionally in the fishing nets, attracting local media coverage only. Nevertheless, this issue has not yet been given adequate and comprehensive scientific analysis, the sea-disposed munitions are not covered by either the Chemical Weapons Convention or other arms control treaties. In fact, the problem has been neglected for a long time on the international level. Only recently were official data made available by the countries which admitted conducting dumping operations.
An up-to-date summary of our understanding of the dynamics and thermodynamics of moist atmospheric convection, with a strong focus on recent developments in the field. The book also reviews ways in which moist convection may be parameterised in large-scale numerical models - a field in which there is still some controversy - and discusses the implications of convection for large-scale flow. Audience: The book is aimed at the graduate level and research meteorologists as well as scientists in other disciplines who need to know more about moist convection and its representation in numerical models.
This book provides an up-to-date introduction to the theory of
sound propagation in the ocean. The text treats both ray and wave
propagation and pays considerable attention to stochastic problems
such as the scattering of sound at rough surfaces and random
inhomogeneities. An introductory chapter that discusses the basic
experimental data complements the following theoretical chapters.
This book fills a gap in knowledge of breaking waves and their influence on the generation of marine fluxes from ocean surfaces. Based on published data as well as on the author's experience, the text explores in detail the relationship chain of breaking waves, whitecaps coverage, rate of wave energy dissipation, amount of aerosol fluxes rising from a given sea basin, and possible seasonal variations.
The ocean is transparent to sound where slight irregularities within the ocean cause sound fluctuations, and thus set limits on the many uses of sound in the ocean, similar to the limits imposed by the atmosphere on ground-based telescopes. This 1979 book attempts to connect the known structure of the ocean volume with experimental results in long-range sound transmission. Theories of wave propagation through irregular media, developed for optical and radio wave transmission are found to be inapplicable in many respects due to the complications of ocean structure, particularly the combination of anisotropy and 'sound channel'. The authors extend wave propagation theory to account for the ocean complications and introduces the path-integral approach to the solution of the strong-scattering regime that solves many long-standing problems. The book is written at the post-graduate level, but has been carefully organised to give experimenters a grasp of important results without undue mathematics.
We are only now beginning to understand the climatic impact of the remarkable events that are now occurring in subarctic waters. Researchers, however, have yet to agree upon a predictive model that links change in our northern seas to climate. This volume brings together the body of evidence needed to develop climate models that quantify the ocean exchanges through subarctic seas, measure their variability, and gauge their impact on climate.
Recent studies suggest that tropical cyclones are more powerful than in the past with the most dramatic increase in the North Atlantic. The increase is correlated with an increase in ocean temperature. A debate concerns the nature of these increases with some scientists attributing them to a natural climate fluctuation and others suggesting climate change related to anthropogenic increases in forcing from greenhouse gases. A Summit on Hurricanes and Climate Change was held during the spring of 2007 on the island of Crete that brought together leading academics and researchers on both sides of the scientific debate to discuss new research and express opinions about what will happen in the future with regard to hurricane activity. This proceedings volume highlights the state-of-the-science research into various aspects of the hurricane-climate connection. It is likely that the science presented here will lead to new research that will help answer crucial questions about our sustainable future.
Paleoceanography is the science dealing with the history of the oceans. Originally published in 1985, this book describes what had been found out during the previous decade about the past 100 million years of the history of the South Atlantic Ocean, thanks largely to drilling by Glomar Challenger during five expeditions in 1980. Palaeotemperature studies provided a history of climatic variations, geochemistry of carbon isotopes provided information on fertility of planktonic organisms and the intensity of oceanic overturns, while correlation of sediment character to changes in oceanic chemistry and fertility permitted interpretations of the variation of the level at which fossil skeletons became dissolved. All the authors were experts and most took part in the 1980 expeditions to the South Atlantic. This book brought together the results of the major discoveries in one volume and was the first modern regional synthesis of ocean history.
Bringing together 30 international experts, this volume commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, the UN organization responsible for fostering intergovernmental cooperation on global ocean issues. It looks at how governments use science to establish ocean policies, with chapters ranging from the history of ocean management to current advances in marine science, observation and management applications, and the international agencies that co-ordinate this work. With a focus on key topical issues such as marine pollution, exploitation, and hazards, Troubled Waters reflects on past successes and failures in ocean management and emphasises the need for knowledge and effective government action to ensure a sustainable future for this precious resource. Illustrated with dramatic, full-colour images, it is essential reading for researchers, students, policy makers and managers of the marine environment, and also provides an attractive and accessible overview for anyone concerned about the future stewardship of our oceans.
This book was published in 2004. The Interaction of Ocean Waves and Wind describes in detail the two-way interaction between wind and ocean waves and shows how ocean waves affect weather forecasting on timescales of 5 to 90 days. Winds generate ocean waves, but at the same time airflow is modified due to the loss of energy and momentum to the waves; thus, momentum loss from the atmosphere to the ocean depends on the state of the waves. This volume discusses ocean wave evolution according to the energy balance equation. An extensive overview of nonlinear transfer is given, and as a by-product the role of four-wave interactions in the generation of extreme events, such as freak waves, is discussed. Effects on ocean circulation are described. Coupled ocean-wave, atmosphere modelling gives improved weather and wave forecasts. This volume will interest ocean wave modellers, physicists and applied mathematicians, and engineers interested in shipping and coastal protection.
It is only in the past few years that methods of adequate sensitivity have become available for true ultra-trace metal determinations in water. In the case of organics in seawater it has now become possible to resolve the complex mixtures of organics in seawater and achieve the required very low detection limits. Fortunately, the interest in micro-constituents in the seawater both from the environmental and the nutrient balance points of view has coincided with the availability of advanced instrumentation capable of meeting the analytical needs. This complete and up-to-date compilation of the currently employed proven methods for the chemical analysis of seawaters includes 45 tables and 48 figures. The author presents the methods in a logical manner so that the reader can readily learn how to perform them and understand the types of instrumentation available. It helps the practitioner to implement these methods successfully into his laboratory and to apply them quickly and reliably. In addition, the detailed description of each method enables the analyst to set up new analytical methods meeting the needs for the detection of new analytes. The volume covers all aspects of the analysis of seawater using both classical and the most advanced recently introduced physical techniques. It is an invaluable source for the analysts, oceanographers, fisheries experts, politicians and decision maker engaged in seawater environmental protection. |
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