Notions for the Motions of the Oceans

Abstract

Operational oceanography combines models and observations to assess and predict the ocean state. While the mechanisms of forcing and equations of fluid motion for the ocean are known, present computers cannot solve all of the relevant scales of motion at the same time. Thus, choices of scales to emphasize must be made in operational systems. This chapter explores some of the issues in choosing a scale, including evaluating approximations to the equations of motion, typical kinds of variability at different scales, and parameterizations of unresolved processes.