Education:
B.Sc., Queen's Universityat Kingston, Ont. (Engineering Physics), 1991
M.Sc., Cornell University (Environmental Engineering), 1995
Ph.D., Oregon State University (Physical Oceanography), May 2000
Research Interests:
Ocean Mixing - Exploring the physics of turbulence and mixing is key to our understanding of ocean dynamics. Innovative instrumentation, detailed analysis, and simple dynamical models enable us to:
- understand the generation and evolution of turbulence
- quantify irreversible fluxes of heat, salt, biology, chemicals and momentum
- identify the processes (the pathways to turbulence) which produce these fluxes
- determine the effects of turbulence on larger-scale flows.
Current Research:
Innovative instrumentation to explore dynamics down to the smallest scales of motion are crucial to understanding ocean turbulence and its effects. Some of the projects of the Ocean Mixing Group include:
- the development of a fast-response thermocouple to measure temperature fluctuations at the smallest scales.
- the analysis of highly resolved conductivity measurements to make the first direct estimates of turbulent salinity fluxes and salinity microstructure.
- the observation of internal hydraulic flows on the continental shelf which produce intense mixing and high drag. (Link to 4Mb PDF file)
RISE is a multidisciplinary effort to study physical and biogeochemical interactions in the complex Columbia River Plume ecosystem. Detailed observations reveal intense fronts, large-amplitude internal waves, shear-driven mixing, and intense bottom boundary layers. Visit the RISE website for more details.
Fine- and microscale observations help us understand the interaction between internal waves and rough topography. Visit the TWIST website to find out more about internal tides and mixing on the corrugated continental slope off the east coast of the United States.
The Absolute Velocity Profiler (AVP) and eXpendable Current Profilers (XCP) were used to characterize the internal waves radiating from the Hawaiian Ridge and estimate the associated dissipation (with Tom Sanford, Eric Kunze, and Craig Lee). Preliminary results can be found at the AVP HOME webpage.
|
