| Date: Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Title: New PDE Reduced Models for Geophysical Flows
Abstract: We review the mathematical structure of the
PDEs governing atmosphere-ocean flows.
Since these PDEs are fundamentally multi-scale,
mathematical and physical understanding has
been based largely on reduced models valid
for limiting parameter regimes. One of the
simplest such reduced models is the celebrated
quasi-geostrophic (QG) equation. After explaining
the QG model from several points of view, we will
show how to derive a hierarchy of new PDE reduced
models intermediate between QG and the full governing
equations. We illustrate how the new reduced PDEs
can be used to identify the nonlinear interactions primarily
responsible for observed non-QG phenomena, such as
cyclone/anticyclone asymmetry in geophysical flows.
Speaker: Leslie Smith
Institution: Univ of Wisconsin
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