The Physics of Oceans and Atmospheres (POA) research discipline contains two core subdisciplines: Physical oceanography and atmospheric sciences.
Teaching and Research Faculty
Andrea Allan, Jack Barth, Jesse Cusack, Simon de Szoeke, Edward Dever, Melanie Fewings, Jonathan Fram, Amrapalli Garanaik, Jessica Garwood, Jennifer Hutchings, Andrea Jenney, Mike Kosro, Jim Lerczak, Ricardo Matano, Phil Mote, Jonathan Nash, Larry O'Neill, Tuba Özkan-Haller, Brodie Pearson, David Rupp, Roger Samelson, Andreas Schmittner, Kipp Shearman, Karen Shell, Emily Shroyer, Nick Siler, Eric Skyllingstad, Yvette Spitz, Justin Wettstein, Greg Wilson, Ed Zaron, Seth Zippel
POA Email Lists
Go to the CEOAS Email Lists Box Note and search for "poa" using Ctrl-F (Windows, Linux, Chrome OS), ⌘-F (Mac), or tap (upload) then Find on Page (phone or tablet).
Physics of Oceans and Atmospheres Seminar Series
Tuesdays from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in Burt 193 (except where noted)
Spring Term 2025
POA seminars will be held on Tuesdays at 3:30 PM in Burt 193. If you would like to present, are hosting a visitor, know someone who might be interested, or have speaker suggestions, please contact Mareike Koerner, who is organizing this term's POA seminars. Also welcome are suggestions for non-OSU visiting speakers. POA discipline seminar funds are available to provide partial travel support for external visitors if needed.
See the POA Google Calendar.
- April 1 – Jack Barth, To Stir Curiosity: Steinbeck and Ricketts’ Expedition to the Sea of Cortez
- April 22 – Sam Lewin (UC Berkley) – in Burt 193 and on Zoom
Multiscale mixing variability on the inner shelf
Abstract: On the inner continental shelf, shoaling internal waves interact with complex bathymetry, shear and stratification to produce energetic stratified turbulence that is essential for the vertical mixing of heat, momentum and biological tracers. In this talk, I will explore parameterizations of mixing driven by internal wave-breaking, which remain a major source of uncertainty in our understanding of energy and tracer transport in shelf seas. The focus will be on a case study of shipboard measurements collected off the coast of central California during the Inner Shelf Dynamics Experiment in 2017. Stratified midcolumn turbulence was found to be energetic and intermittent, with bulk dissipation rates dominated by 15% of measurements that were consistently co-located with shoreward-propagating internal bore features. Surprisingly, key mixing parameters, such as the mixing efficiency, exhibited variability on temporal scales from seconds to multiple days—far exceeding the recurrence time of individual bores. I will discuss how these observations challenge classical assumptions about the steady state energetics of turbulence production and suggest how additional dynamics might be incorporated in a multiscale statistical framework. Finally, I will introduce some ongoing work using idealised numerical simulations to investigate the roles of shear and convection in mixing across a broad wave-breaking parameter space.
- April 29 – TBA
- May 6 – TBA
- May 13 – Anta-Clarisse Sarr (University of Oregon)
- May 20 – Suneil Iyer
- May 27 – Amrapalli Garanik
- June 3 – Inés Leyba
- June 10 – TBA