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 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
(Unless otherwise noted. Additional or updated information will be added as it becomes available.)
Winter Term 2026
POA seminars will be held on Tuesdays at 3:30 PM in Burt 193.
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 Inés Leyba and Jihun Jung who are 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.
Zoom connection information for these seminars throughout the fall term.
- March 3 – Roger Samelson, Stokes drift and wind drift in a rotating equilibrium sea
Abstract: Stokes drift or wave-drift in a surface gravity wave field may be defined either kinematically or dynamically. The kinematic wave-drift is the classical, mean wave-correlated component of fluid motion; for linear, sinusoidal, non-rotating waves, the kinematic wave-drift can be computed using Lagrangian, fixed-z Eulerian, or surface-conforming Eulerian means, where z is depth relative to the mean sea surface. The dynamic wave-drift is the forced response to a mean wave-correlated pressure gradient; in a rotating, equilibrium wind-sea, the dynamic wave-drift depends on the forced-damped momentum balance for the drift. In the equilibrium setting, the forcing may be taken as the wave-correlated pressure force on the free surface, which imparts momentum but no vorticity to the wave field. A mean rate of momentum loss to wave-breaking may be introduced through a damping timescale inferred from equilibrium wind-wave theory. The resulting forced-damped momentum balances are examined, for both Eulerian means, and it is inferred that in a rotating equilibrium sea with Coriolis parameter computed at 40o N, the mean dynamic Stokes drift will be directed up to 10o-45o to the right of downwind, depending on depth, wavelength, and wind-wave amplitude or wind speed. The rotating, equilibrium-sea wave-drift model is combined with a rotating equilibrium-sea wind-drift model to obtain predictions of the combined wind and dynamic wave drift. This combined drift differs modestly but systematically from wind-drift-only predictions from the wind-drift model. A modified, dynamic-drift form of wave-averaged equations for wave-turbulence interactions is suggested.
- March 10 – Speakers TBD, Tribute to Roland de Szoeke