Principal Investigator: Robert B. Scott

Funding Agency: NSF OCE, Award #0327520
Funding start date: October 1, 2003
Funding end date: September 30, 2008 (Estimated)

Abstract
This project is a collaborative effort to use recent mathematical developments to improve numerical modeling of the World Ocean by considering how to parameterize how ocean currents interact with topography. Theories based on statistical mechanics calculations predict the flows that occur as the system evolves towards a state of maximum entropy. These flows will be used to develop parameterizations of how the flows interact with topography in coarsely resolved models and these models will then be compared to highly resolved models. The results will be used to develop parameterizations for the widely used POP and MOM models of ocean circulation which are widely used in climate prediction studies.