The physical oceanography group at UConn's Department of Marine Sciences includes six faculty members: Frank Bohlen, Heidi Dierssen, James Edson, Ed Monahan, Jim O'Donnell, and Mike Whitney.

A common thread of their various research interests is an emphasis on understanding fluid dynamics in the coastal environment, but the collective expertise of the group touches on a wide range of physical oceanographic phenomena. As a result, M.Sc. and Ph.D. students in the department gain a broad exposure to the essential subdisciplines of physical oceanography in addition to their in-depth research training.

As well as continued sea-going observational work facilitated by the R/V Connecticut, our research techniques include numerical circulation simulations, inverse modeling, analytical and theoretical studies, laboratory experiments, the development of in-situ instruments, and satellite data analysis.

Graduate study in physical oceanography at UConn combines quality teaching in the comfortable and personalized setting of the Avery Point campus together with opportunities for involvement in a variety of outstanding research projects. Our integration with the other strengths of the department in biological and chemical oceanography gives us a unique flavor among physical oceanography graduate programs.

In addition to regularly scheduled seminars and special topic courses, we offer the following physical oceanography courses:

MARN 270. Descriptive Physical Oceanography
Ocean basin characteristics, properties of sea water, distribution of water masses, oceanic and atmospheric circulation, waves, tides, near-shore circulation, methods and instrumentation.

MARN 370. Dynamic Physical Oceanography
Global energy balance. General circulation in the oceans and atmosphere. Thermodynamics and stability. Fundamental fluid mechanics. Surface gravity waves. Geophysical fluid mechanics. Tides and other long waves. Theories of global circulation.

MARN 372. Sediment Transport
The mechanics of sediment transport with particular emphasis on the processes governing transport in coastal and estuarine areas. Initiation of motion for cohesive and noncohesive materials, bed and suspended load transport, bed forms, sediment-flow interactions, modeling considerations.

MARN 376. Estuarine Circulation
The physical characteristics of estuaries, river and tidal interactions, turbulence and mixing, salt balance, circulation dynamics, mass transport and flushing, modeling considerations.

MARN 377. Ocean Waves
General methods of wave analysis; surface gravity waves; tidal wave dynamics; internal waves and tides; planetary, edge and topographic Rossby waves.

MARN 378. Advanced Dynamical Oceanography
Ocean thermodynamics; dynamics of rotating; homogeneous fluids; ocean circulation; western boundary currents; the thermocline, oceanic fronts.

MARN 390. Mathematical models in Marine Sciences
Examples of the formulation of quantitative models of marine systems with a review of some particularly useful mathematical methods (differential equations, operational methods, numerical solution techniques), emphasizing the computation of predictions.

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