Notable advances of the last quarter century have deepened (appropriately enough) our appreciation of the three dimensional nature of the ocean's large-scale circulation. This circulation has important implications for ocean chemistry and biology, atmospheric science, and climate.
Some students are deterred by the theoretical orientation of advanced courses. Even mathematically sophisticated students may struggle to connect theory to actual ocean phenomena. Therefore the book has an innovative structure in which each chapter covers a topic in three parts: observational description, explanatory concepts, and mathematical theory supporting the concepts.
Ocean Circulation in Three Dimensions can serve as the textbook for a graduate course. It includes a summary of introductory topics for readers from other fields. The book covers "classical" topics of horizontal circulation, and expands them to include shallow wind-driven overturning, the deep global "conveyer belt", high latitudes, the role of eddies, and the ocean's role in heat transport.
Last modified: 11 June 2019