1

GFD Newsletter 2004

Faculty of WalshCollege

The 2004 GFD Photograph.

A Sketch of the SummerThe summer of 2004 saw the GFD program tackle

“Tides”. Myrl Hendershott (Scripps Institution ofOceanography) gave a fabulous introduction to the sub-ject in the first week of the course, laying the founda-tions from astronomy and classical geophysical fluiddynamics. In the second week, Chris Garrett (Uni-versity of Victoria) admirably followed up with recentdevelopments on the subject, including the recent ob-servations from satellite altimetry, their implications tomixing and circulation, and even a memorable lectureon the noble theme of how we might solve the world’senergy crisis. The principal lectures proved unusuallypopular this summer, and the seminar room at Walshoften overflowed in the first two weeks.

Following on from the lectures, the seminar sched-ule of the summer covered in greater detail the oceano-graphic issues with which researchers are actively grap-pling. We also heard about related problems regardingatmospheric, planetary and stellar tides, together withthe usual mix of topics on GFD in general.

Neil Balmforth and Stefan Llewellyn Smith actedas co-Directors for the summer. Janet Fields, Jeanne

Fleming and Penny Foster provided the administrativebackbone to the Program, both during the summer andthroughout the year beforehand. As always, we weregrateful to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution forthe use of Walsh Cottage, and Keith Bradley’s solidservice could not be overlooked. Shilpa Ghadge andShreyas Mandre are to be thanked for their part in com-forting the fellows, developing the summer’s proceed-ings volume (to be available on the GFD website soon)and for running the computer network.

Schedule of Principal Lectures

Week 1:Monday, June 21: Introduction to ocean tides (MyrlHendershott)

Tuesday, June 22: The role of tidal dissipation and theLaplace tidal equations (Myrl Hendershott)

Wednesday, June 23: Solutions to Laplace’s TidalEquations (Myrl Hendershott)

Thursday, June 24: Resonance and more solutionsto Laplace’s Tidal Equations (Myrl Hendershott andChris Garrett)

Friday, June 25: The spectrum of free waves alongthe coasts (Myrl Hendershott)

Week 2:Monday, June 28: Internal Tides (Myrl Hendershottand Chris Garrett)

Tuesday, June 29: Tidal bores (Chris Garrett)

Wednesday, June 30: Tidal Rectification and StokesDrift (Chris Garrett)

Thursday, July 1: Rectification, Stratification andMixing (Chris Garrett)

Friday, July 2: Tidal power (Chris Garrett)

2

Experiments in theCoastal Research Lab:Anja’s wrinkled,elastic-plated gravitycurrent.

Fellows’ Reports

Danielle Wain, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Laboratory Experiments on the Effect of Baro-clinic Eddies on a Dense Plume in a RotatingStratified Fluid

Eleanor Williams Frajka, University of WashingtonConvection in a Fluid Loop

Lisa Neef, University of TorontoResonant Triads of Tidally-Forced Internal Grav-ity Waves

Yaron Toledo, TechnionHigh Order Boussinesq Models for Internal Inter-facial Waves and Layered SQG

Anja Slim, University of CambridgeExotic Gravity Currents

Josefina Arraut, Brazilian Inst. for Space ResearchRossby Wave Scattering between HomogeneousMedia

Marshall Ward, Florida State UniversityDouble Diffusive Gravity Currents under Rotation

David Vener, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyTwo-Dimensional Vortex Shedding from a Corner

Vineet Birman, Univ. California, Santa BarbaraNon-Normal Convection

Visweswaran Nageswaran, Univ. Mass., AmherstParametric Instability of Internal Waves with Ro-tation

Softball ReportWhen the fellows gathered for the first softball prac-

tice at Bell Tower field this year, the outlook was grim

indeed. One of them had not played since the age ofeight and many others had never played. The predictionwas that the season would be a frustrating one, but thesummer turned out differently: Vineet took to the gameimmediately, becoming as good a center fielder as wecould have desired, and catching the ball bare handedas often as he used his glove. Yaron turned into a goodfirst baseman although he was out for much of the sea-son with an injury suffered in the first game before hecould even bat. Viswesh made remarkable catches andmisses in the outfield, and David competently fieldedat third. Eleanor, Anya, Josefina and Danielle all viedto play at second, but they sometimes had to settle forsharing the space out in right field.

With little contribution from the staff, we expectedto lose every game. Although the summer certainly be-gan that way, it did not continue so. Indeed, as is thecase between Yale and Harvard, a win against our ri-val, PO, could make up for losses in the other games.And after an initial loss to PO by a score of 20 to 2,we came back and beat them by 23 to 16 (with a newWHOI scheduling system, we played them twice).

In the final game against the staff, the fellows werehyped up about destroying the opposition and did ex-actly that, winning by 18 to 4. We all gathered atCrooked Pond afterwards for water, fun and relaxation,and to wind the summer down in the traditional way.

Our esteemedprincipal lecturer,Myrl Hendershott,enjoying a quietmoment.

The GFD WebsiteThe lectures notes and reports are available at

gfd.whoi.edu. The GFD website also contains:• lecture and seminar schedules• electronic versions of proceedings and newsletters• lists of alumni and visitors• application materials• picture galleries of life at GFD• useful information and links.

3

Presentation of fellows.

The GFD Public LectureFollowing on from the successful enterprise of last

summer, GFD2004 once again featured a lecture for thegeneral public in the Woods Hole area. Carl Wunschdelivered a very well received lecture entitled “ClimateChange Stories,” in which he gave an impression ofhow scientists generally believe our climate is currentlychanging, whilst simultaneously urging caution againstsome of the more outrageous and exaggerated claims.The lecture was held at Lilly Auditorium, thanks to thehospitality of the Marine Biology Laboratory, and thereception following the lecture was enjoyed by all.

Experiments from the Coastal Research Lab:Marshall’s gravity currents.

Thanks to Eleanor, the GFD dragon entered theWelander Loop this summer.

4

An alarmed director discovers a group of participantseagerly playing with a suspension of cornstarch in his

basement.

The GFD FacultyThe GFD Faculty handles the scientific and admin-

istrative duties of the school. This group is made upof members of the scientific community, across severaldisciplines, united by their interest in GFD. These arethe faces to be seen at GFD over future summers, andtheir research interests help to define the scientific di-rection and flavor of the Program.

Neil Balmforth University of British ColumbiaOliver Buhler New York UniversityClaudia Cenedese W. H. O. I.Eric Chassignet University of MiamiCharles Doering University of MichiganGlenn Flierl M. I. T.Karl Helfrich W. H. O. I.Lou Howard M. I. T. and Florida State UniversityJoseph Keller Stanford UniversityRichard Kerswell University of BristolNorman Lebovitz University of ChicagoWillem Malkus M. I. T.Philip Morrison University of Texas at AustinMichael Proctor University of CambridgeAntonello Provenzale ISAC-CNR, TorinoRichard Salmon Scripps Institution of OceanographyEdward Spiegel Columbia UniversityMelvin Stern Florida State UniversityJean-Luc Thiffeault Imperial College, LondonGeorge Veronis Yale UniversityJohn Wettlaufer Yale UniversityJack Whitehead W. H. O. I.William Young Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Experimental slumping on the porch.

ContributionsThe GFD program has established an endowment

fund to help support the program in the future and for aspecially funded position intended to help finance theextended visit of a key participant, such as the sum-mer’s Principal Lecturer. The fund is administered byWHOI, under the guidance of George Veronis. If youwould like to contribute, please send your check (madepayable to WHOI) to

Woods Hole Oceanographic InstitutionGFD Fund, MS 40

Woods Hole, MA 02543

Donations can also be made by credit card by callingthe Development office at 508-289-4895.

Please send comments to njb@math.ubc.ca orjeanluc@imperial.ac.uk if you have any sug-gestions regarding this newsletter or the GFD Program.

The GFD Program is funded by the National ScienceFoundation and the Office of Naval Research.