Buoyancy-driven Flows

by Chassignet, Eric P.; Cenedese, Claudia; Verron, Jacques

• ISBN13: 9781107008878
• ISBN10: 1107008875
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-03-05
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

Buoyancy is one of the main forces driving flows on our planet, especially in the oceans and atmosphere. These flows range from buoyant coastal currents to dense overflows in the ocean, and from avalanches to volcanic pyroclastic flows on the Earth's surface. This book brings together contributions by leading world scientists to summarize our present theoretical, observational, experimental, and modeling understanding of buoyancy-driven flows. Buoyancy-driven currents play a key role in the global ocean circulation and in climate variability through their impact on deep-water formation. Buoyancy-driven currents are also primarily responsible for the redistribution of fresh water throughout the world's oceans. This book is an invaluable resource for advanced students and researchers in oceanography, geophysical fluid dynamics, atmospheric science, and the wider Earth sciences who need a state-of-the-art reference on buoyancy-driven flows.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
Gravity currents - theory and laboratory experiments	p. 13
Theory of oceanic buoyancy-driven flows	p. 52
Buoyancy-forced circulation and down welling in marginal seas	p. 118
Buoyant coastal currents	p. 164
Overflows and convectively driven flows	p. 203
An ocean climate modeling perspective on buoyancy-driven flows	p. 240
Buoyancy-driven currents in eddying ocean models	p. 281
Atmospheric buoyancy-driven flows	p. 312
Volcanic flows	p. 338
Gravity flow on steep slope	p. 372
Index	p. 433
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