OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
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My research interest is the study of physical processes in coastal ocean. Big, small, long, short, high-frequency, low-frequency, stratified, unstratified, rotating, nonrotating, forced, unforced, surface, bottom, middle – I don’t care. If it’s physics and coastal, I’m interested.
I am most interested in understanding the dynamics of the evolving structure of the density field over the shelf. How it is affected by external forcing and how it in turn affects the circulation within the coastal ocean.
My approach is observational, using innovative sampling techniques – such as Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) – coupled with modeling and analysis, to explain fundamental physical processes.
In addition, I think that this kind of research needs to be approached with an interdisciplinary perspective, extending the understanding of physical processes to their impacts on biological, chemical and environmental processes.
Study of evaporative dense water formation over the inner-shelf and shelf-slope exchange processes associated with variability of the Leeuwin Current along the northwest Australian coast.
Beginning in the late 1800’s, lightships (floating lighthouses) were deployed along the US coast as aids to navigation. By the 1950’s, the lightships were gradually retired and replaced by observational buoys operated by NOAA. Observations from these lightships and buoys are used to characterize the variability of sea surface temperature along the US east coast over the last 100 years. Coastal waters have warmed at a rate of approximately 0.02°/yr.
Mutliple AUVs (REMUS) and ship-based CTD and ADCP observations are used to perform high-resolution, synoptic surveys of small scale (a few km) rapidly evolving (several hours) features over the inner-shelf.
AUVGs will be used to occupy cross-shelf sections off Newport, Oregon and south of Heceta Bank on weekly time scales for several years. The Newport Line has a long history of observations, and the new autonomous observations will continue that legacy, adding to our understanding of the interannual variability on the US west coast.
In collaboration with commercial crab fishermen, I am making observations of surface and bottom temperature over a region of shelf off Newport, Oregon. Fifty crab pots are equipped with inexpensive, durable sensors recording temperature on 7.5 minute intervals.
Observations from the Coastal Mixing and Optics moored array have been used to characterize the evolution of stratification on the New England shelf, the dynamics of subtidal shelf circulations, the dynamics of barotropic and baroclinic tides, and processes affecting the structure and evolution of near-inertial variability.
B.S., Aeronautical Engineering, University of Colorado, 1993.
Ph.D., Physical Oceanography, Oregon State University, 1999.
Shearman, R.K. 2005. Observations of Near-Inertial Current Variability on the New England Shelf. Journal of Geophysical Research., 110, C02012, doi:10.1029/2004JC002341
Shearman, R.K. and S.J. Lentz, 2004. Observations of tidal variability on the New England Shelf. Journal of Geophysical Research, 109, C06010, doi:10.1029/2003JC001972.
Shearman, R.K. and S.J. Lentz, 2003. Dynamics of mean and subtidal flow on the New England shelf. Journal of Geophysical Research, 108(C8), 3281, doi:10.1029/2002JC001417.
Barth, J.A., T.J. Cowles, P.M. Kosro, R.K. Shearman, A. Huyer, and R.L. Smith, 2002. Injection of carbon from the shelf to offshore beneath the euphotic zone in the California Current. Journal of Geophysical Research, 107(C6), doi:10.1029/2001JC000956.
Lentz, S., K Shearman, S. Anderson, A. Plueddemann, and J. Edson, 2003. The evolution of stratification over the New England shelf during the coastal Mixing and Optics study, August 1996ƒ{June 1997. Journal of Geophysical Research, 108(C1), 3008, doi:10.1029/2001JC001121.
Shearman, R.K., J.A. Barth, J.S. Allen, and R.L. Haney, 2000. Diagnosis of the three-dimensional circulation in mesoscale features with large Rossby number. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 30(11), 2687-2709.
Shearman, R.K., J.A. Barth, and P.M. Kosro, 1999. Diagnosis of the three-dimensional circulation associated with mesoscale motion in the California Current. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 29(4), 651-670.
Huyer, A., J.A. Barth, P.M. Kosro, R.K. Shearman, and R.L. Smith, 1998. Upper-ocean water mass characteristics of the California Current, summer 1993. Deep-Sea Research II, 45(8-9), 1411-1442.
Shearman, R.K., Coastal Ocean Flux and Exchange, 2003. ALPS: Autonomous and Lagrangian Platforms and Sensors, Workshop Report, D. L. Rudnick and M. J. Perry, eds., 64 pp., www.geo-prose.com/ALPS
Miller, A.J., J.C. McWilliams, N. Schneider, J.S. Allen, J.A. Barth, R.C. Beardsley, F.P. Chavez, T.K. Chereskin, C.A. Edwards, R.L. Haney, K.A. Kelly, J.C. Kindle, L.N. Ly, J.R. Moisan, M.A. Noble, P.P. Niiler, L.Y. Oey, F.B. Schwing, R.K. Shearman, and M.S. Swenson, 1999. Observing and modeling the California Current system: Purposes, achievements and aspirations. Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union, 80(45), pp. 533, 534, 536, 539.
Kosro, P.M., J.A. Barth, J. Fleischbein, A. Huyer, R. O'Malley, R.K. Shearman, R.L. Smith, 1995: SeaSoar and CTD observations during EBC cruises W9306A and W9308B June to September 1993. Data Report 160, Reference 95-2, College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, Oregon, 393 pp.
Shearman, R.K., J.A. Barth, J.S. Allen, and R.L. Haney, Diagnosis of the three-dimensional circulation in mesoscale features with large Rossby number. Oregon State University, January 1999.
Shearman, R.K. and J.A. Barth, 1999: A description of the kinematics and dynamics of mesoscale motion in the California Current system through observation and modeling. Liege Colloquium on Hydrodynamic, May 1999.
Barth, J.A., R.K. Shearman, T.J. Cowles, S.D. Pierce, and J.R. Richman, 1999: Three-dimensional circulation at the Antarctic Polar Front. Liege Colloquium on Hydrodynamics, May 1999.
Shearman, R.K., J. A. Barth, P. T. Strub, and D. Righi, Satellite and in situ observations compared with Pacific West Coast POM. Surfside Climate Workshop, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, February 1999.
Shearman, R.K., Evolution of mesoscale features in the California Current. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, February 2000.
Shearman, R.K., Evolution of mesoscale features in the California Current. University of Rhode Island, March 2000.
Shearman, R.K., J. A. Barth, A. Huyer, P. M. Kosro, and R. L. Smith, 2000: Evolution of mesoscale fronts, jets and eddies in the California Current. Eos, Trans., AGU, , Ocean Sciences Meet. Suppl., OS42H-2.
Shearman, R.K. and S. J. Lentz, 2000: The Breakdown of Stratification and Current Response to Episodic Storm Events During the Coastal Mixing and Optics Experiment. Eos, Trans., AGU, 81, AGU Fall Meet. Suppl., OS72B-13.
Shearman, R.K. and S.J. Lentz, Seasonal variations in stratification on the New England shelf. Postdoctoral Seminar Series, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, May 2001.
Shearman, R.K. and S.J. Lentz, Interesting observation of inertial oscillations (Some results from the Coastal Mixing and Optics experiment). Buoy Lunch, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, May 2001.
Shearman, R.K., Mean and Subtidal Currents on the New England Shelf. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, September 2001.
Shearman, R.K., Mean and Subtidal Currents on the New England Shelf.¡¨ Oregon State University, October 2001.
Shearman, R.K., Near-Inertial Current Variability During the Coastal Mixing and Optics Experiment, August 1996 through June 1997.¡¨ Eos Trans. AGU, 83(47), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract OS52C-0235, 2002
Shearman, R.K. and F. Bahr, Northwest Autralian Shelf Dynamics Experiment¡¨ Buoy Lunch, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, August 2003
Shearman, R.K., Observations of Near-Inertial Current Variability on the New England Shelf. Oregon State University, September 2003
Shearman, R.K., S.J. Lentz and K. Silverthorne, Sea surface temperature variability along the Middle Atlantic bight over the last 100 years. Middle Atlantic Bight Physical Oceanography and Meteorology Meeting (MABPOM), October 2003.
Shearman, R.K., Observations of Near-Inertial Current Variability on the New England Shelf. Oregon State University, November 2003.
Shearman, R.K., S.J. Lentz and K. Silverthorne, Sea surface temperature variability along the Middle Atlantic bight over the last 100 years. Eos Trans. AGU, 84(52), Ocean Sci. Meet. Suppl., Abstract OS21N-03, 2004.
Shearman, R.K., Autonomous Measurements of Temperature, Salinity and Currents over the Inner-Shelf at the Martha¡¦s Vineyard Coastal Observatory. ASLO/TOS Ocean Research Conference, SS6.02, February 2004.
Brink K.H. and R.K. Shearman, Northwest Australian Shelf Dynamics Experiment. ONR Progress Review, Wood Hole Oceanographic Institution, Septermber 2004.
Brink K.H., F. Bahr and R.K. Shearman, Northwest Australian Shelf Dynamics Experiment: Along-Shelf Flow., Eos Trans. AGU, 85(47), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract OS33D-01, 2004.
Bahr F., R.K. Shearman and K.H. Brink, Northwest Australian Shelf Dynamics Experiment: Shelf-Edge Processes, Eos Trans. AGU, 85(47), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract OS33D-02, 2004.
Shearman R.K., K.H. Brink and F. Bahr Northwest Australian Shelf Dynamics Experiment: Evaporative Dense Water Formation over the Inner-Shelf Eos Trans. AGU, 85(47), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract OS33D-03, 2004.
Shearman R.K., K.H. Brink, Evaporative dense water formation and shelf-edge exchange along the Northwest Coast of Australia. Gordon Research Conference, June 2005.