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 CEOAS Email Lists (on SharePoint; login required) 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 and on Zoom
Spring Term 2026
Information will be updated as it becomes available.
If you would like to present, are hosting a visitor, know someone who might be interested, or have speaker suggestions, please contact Jihun Jung 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.
- April 14 – Christo Buizert (OSU CEOAS), The ocean heat valve: AMOC and planetary energy budget during abrupt glacial climate change
- April 21 – Nick Siler (OSU CEOAS), The mountains are getting shorter: orographic precipitation change in the western US
- May 5 – James Girton (University of Washington), The promise, potential, and pitfalls of globally-distributed subsurface internal wave and mixing measurements
- May 12 – J. Xavier Prochaska (UC Santa Cruz), On measuring the energy transfer at horizontal scales of ~10-100km with underwater gliders
- May 19 – Kyle Nardi (NCAR), Leveraging a Variable-Resolution Earth System Model to Depict an Impactful Rain-on-Snow Flooding Event in Glacier National Park
- May 26 – Inés Leyba (CEOAS)
Title: Boundary-Layer Wind Variability along the California Coast
Abstract:
The California coast often experiences narrow bands of enhanced winds in the lower atmosphere, known as coastal low-level jets (CLLJs). These wind features can vary in strength and vertical structure and are influenced by processes within the marine atmospheric boundary layer as well as coastal ocean conditions.
This work presents results from observations collected during the second intensive observation period (IOP-2) of the Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE), which took place from April to May 2023. During this period, 140 radiosondes were launched offshore of central California to characterize atmospheric boundary-layer structure. Combining these observations with ERA5 reanalysis, we investigate the occurrence, vertical structure, and variability of coastal low-level jets and examine how they relate to marine atmospheric boundary-layer conditions.
Using an objective clustering approach, we identified and characterized two jet regimes during IOP-2 that are consistent with the long-term climatology from ERA5 during spring. The first consists of shallow, strong jets that persist throughout the day, closely tied to a shallow boundary layer. The second appears preferentially at night and further offshore. These two regimes leave distinct atmospheric signatures and provide insight into processes shaping coastal wind variability in the S-MODE region.
- June 2 – Open (If you are interested in giving a talk, contact Jihun Jung.)
- June 9 – Bethan Wynne-Cattanach, Title TBD