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Computational Science Seminar

When: Tuesday, April 14, 2015
3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Where: Textiles Building 105
Description: The Center for Scientific Computing and Visualization Research announces the following seminar.

Speaker: Miles Sundermeyer (SMAST at UMassD)
Title: "Ocean Mixing Studies and An Introduction to the UMass Experimental Center for Environmental Lidar (EXCEL)"
Time: Tuesday, April 14, 2015, 3:30pm-4:30pm
Location: Textiles 105

Abstract: Dye release experiments conducted in the seasonal pycnocline of the Sargasso Sea in June 2011 are used to estimate diapycnal and isopycnal diffusivities on time scales of many days, and spatial scales of 0.1 to 10 km. A shear-strain-diffusion model suggests vertical shear dispersion by low frequency shears and internal waves explain a fraction of the observed lateral spreading. A series of shorter (order 6 hrs) experiments surveyed using airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) reveal details about the short-term evolution of the dye patches, including multiple instances of sinuous meanders of the patches early in the evolution, and/or evidence of filamentation along their periphery. This suggests weak small- scale (<1 km) differential lateral advection acting on the patches, possibly contributing to enhanced dispersion at later times in the longer experiments. Simple scaling implies an upper bound on the effective lateral diffusivity at the <1 km scale that is nearly an
order of magnitude smaller than that at 1-5 km scales.

To further advance the use of lidar for environmental science applications such as these, we have established a new UMass Experimental Center for Environmental Lidar (EXCEL). In brief, EXCEL is a multi-campus center (UMass Lowell, Dartmouth, Boston, and Amherst) that pools expertise among the four campuses in terrestrial, oceanographic, and wind lidar. As part of the Center's oceanographic related activities in particular, we are reaching out to potential collaborators within UMass and in the region that have interest and/or possible applications related to bathymetric lidar, spatially resolved wave data, water clarity data (e.g. tubidity, phytoplankton concentrations), marsh/wetland/beach/dune/channel topography/bathymetric data, and/or other marine/coastal related applications. We welcome any opportunities to collaborate with interested groups on these and related problems.

Dr. Sundermeyer is an Associate Professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology. He earned his Ph.D. from the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Physical Oceanography, and has been studying problems relating to ocean mixing for more than 20 years. His primary research interests include vertical and horizontal mixing processes, dye release and Lagrangian drifter studies, numerical modeling of two- and three-dimensional turbulent flows, numerical modeling of physical and biological interactions.

For additional information, see the CSCVR webpage http://cscvr.umassd.edu/seminars.html, or contact Akil Narayan at akil.narayan@umassd.edu or 508-999-8318.
Contact: Center for Scientific Computing and Visualization Research
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