Dartmouth Events

Abstract: This presentation will begin by comparing progress in physical oceanography with that in
particle physics, highlighting some of the aspects that make physical oceanography difficult to study.
This will be followed with a brief introduction to the fundamental concepts in physical oceanography
– done in the context of how the oceans compare with a bathtub. The third portion of the
presentation will examine satellite-derived observations of the ocean with examples of applications
of these observations ranging from the global scale to what is referred to as the submesoscale. Specific
examples will be measurement of the evolution of the mean temperature of the ocean from the
bottom to within 2000m of the surface; large zonal bands of sea surface temperature gradient, and;
astounding surface temperature gradients in the vicinity of large eddies that have detached from the
Gulf Stream.