- SIO 209 – Ocean Turbulence from Space – Winter 2025 [course website]
The main purpose of the class is to show how ocean dynamics can be inferred from heterogeneous satellite observations through the dynamical framework of geostrophic turbulence. We review the basic properties of non-linear geostrophic turbulence (e.g. potential vorticity dynamics, particles and tracer dispersion, frontal dynamics, inverse and direct energy cascades). We illustrate how these theoretical concepts can be used to exploit the synergy of combining different satellite observations (e.g., SSH, SST, ocean color, SAR, sun-glitter images). We aim to understand the turbulent nature of the oceans and, in particular, to diagnose parts of 3D (QG) ocean dynamics in the first 1 000 m of the water column.