Fulvio Crisciani – författare

This book describes the derivation of the equations of motion of fluids as well as the dynamics of ocean and atmospheric currents on both large and small scales through the use of variational methods.

This book describes the derivation of the equations of motion of fluids as well as the dynamics of ocean and atmospheric currents on both large and small scales through the use of variational methods.

Large-scale winds and currents tend to balance Coriolis and pressure gradient forces. The time evolution of these winds and currents is the subject of the quasi-geostrophic theory. Chapter 1 presents concepts and equations of classical inertial fluid mechanics. Chapter 2 deals with the equations of thermodynamics that close the governing equations of the fluids. Then, the motion is reformulated in a uniformly rotating reference frame. Chapter 3 deals with the shallow-water model and the homogeneous model of wind-driven circulation. The chapter also describes a classical application of the Ekman layer to the atmosphere. Chapter 4 considers the two-layer model, as an introduction to baroclinic flows, together with the concept of available potential energy. Chapter 5 takes into account continuously stratified flows in the ocean and in the atmosphere.