COURSES

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Introduction to Oceanography, EAS 4300/6124

This course is an introduction to the ocean sciences, with particular focus on the role of the ocean in the geological, biological, chemical, physical, climatic, and human aspects of the Earth system. The class will cover the following topics: the origin of the ocean basins, marine sedimentation, properties of seawater, ocean circulation, waves, tides, shallow water processes, aspects of marine ecology, biological productivity, coastal processes, ocean habitats and their biota. We will also cover some interdisciplinary aspects of oceanography like El Nino, Global Warming, The Carbon Cycle, Iron and Biogeochemical Cycles, Life in the Deep Ocean and Hydrothermal Vents, Oceanography from Space, Deep Ocean Explorations. A detailed outline of the lectures is available on the course website.

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Environmental Data Analysis, EAS 6490

This course is an advanced introduction to environmental data analysis. It is intended for first year graduate students and senior undergraduates. The goal of this class is to provide a deeper understanding of the theory underlying the statistical analysis of environmental data, both in the space, time and spectral domain, and to provide the students with a hands on experience. Ideally at the end of this class you will have developed a series of computer programming tool boxes and theoretical skills that should immediately be available for analyzing and modeling data in your own research. Although some preview knowledge of probability and statistics is required, a background review will be provided. Concepts and notation will be reintroduced as needed. In this class you will learn (A) how to combine models, which quantify statistical or dynamical relationships, with observations, (B) time series analysis, (C) forecasting and extrapolation and (D) signal decomposition.

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Ocean Modeling, EAS 8803

This course is an introduction to ocean modeling. It is intended for first and second year graduate students. The goal of the class is two fold. (A) Understand different types of ocean models of ranging complexity from simple 2D shallow water and quasi-geostrophic models, to layered and full 3D primitive equations ocean models. In particular during the class you will be able to derive the dynamical equations, understand the implications of physical assumptions made in the derivations and develop intuition for the applicability of each model class. (B) Provide a “hands-on” experience in implementing and using both large and regional scales circulation models. This part of the class relies on being able to use fluently at least a programming language of choice (e.g. Fortran, MATLAB).