Environmental and geophysical fluid dynamics group

Environmental and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics is primarily concerned with fluid flow in rivers, lakes, oceans and the atmosphere. Such flows dominate our physical existence. Geophysical Fluid Dynamics (GFD) is traditionally the study of naturally occurring large scale fluid motions in the oceans and in the atmosphere which are affected by the Earth's rotation. Examples of large scale motions are the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic Ocean and El Nino (or ENSO) in the Tropical Pacific Ocean. ENSO is an example of a large scale phenomenon that involves both the atmosphere and ocean, with global impacts on weather.

Smaller scale motions, such as turbulence and mixing caused by internal waves, and surface water waves have a direct impact on bio-geochemical processes in oceans and lakes and hence on human activity. Due to their ubiquitous nature, these motions are also of fundamental importance to the large scale circulation in both the oceans and atmosphere.

Members of the group

Faculty:

• Kevin Lamb (nonlinear waves, internal waves, hydrodynamic instabilities and mixing, physical oceanography and limnology, coupling of hydrodynamic and bio-geochemical processes in lakes).
• Francis Poulin (hydrodynamic instabilities, Rossby waves, vortices, physical and biological oceanography).
• Marek Stastna (internal waves and solitary waves, computational fluid dynamics, bottom boundary layers, porous media, swimming organisms).
• Michael Waite (turbulence in rotating stratified fluids, vortices, internal waves, mesoscale atmospheric dynamics, moist convection)

Faculty with related interests:

• Chris Fletcher (atmosphere and climate dynamics)
• H. De Sterck 
• Serge D'Alessio (computational and geophysical fluid mechanics)
• Christine Dow ( glacier hydrology and ice dynamics)
• Andrea Scott (turbulence modelling, data assimilation, sea and lake ice)

Graduate students: