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Oceanography in 2025 Proceedings of a Workshop (2009) / Chapter Skim
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Some Thoughts on Physical Oceanography in 2025--Ken Melville
Pages 22-25

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 22...
... Looking back to 1993, could we have guessed where we would be today? For physical oceanography, some of the technological advances that have revolutionized the field in the intervening period have turned out to be: radar altimetry from the TOPEX/Poseidon mission launched in 1992; profiling floats that became operational in the early 1990s and now constitute the 3000-float global Argo system; gliders that became operational almost a decade ago and now are about to be mass produced; computational power that has permitted ever more realistic global physical models while also permitting ever higher resolution for local process studies.
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From page 23...
... This and other aspects of orbital remote sensing highlight the need to supplement the global coverage of satellite remote sensing with suborbital or airborne remote sensing capabilities for submesoscale process studies over shorter timescales. Access by the oceanographic community to research aircraft is very limited, with few aircraft and funding a more explicit consideration than it is with getting access to UNOLS (University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System)
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From page 24...
... However, with our increasing capability to undertake field measurements that approach laboratory quality, and with the constraints that the basic conservation laws impose, there is reason for optimism about the progress to be made by 2025. It is also the case that the synergy between Large Eddy Simulation (LES)
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From page 25...
... This issue is also reflected in our educational programs, where more expensive lab classes have tended to decline as educational budgets have come under pressure. There is a larger educational question, and that is how do we attract and educate the coming generations of oceanographers so they have the motivation and skills to make the discoveries needed for us to better understand the ocean and its impact on society?
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Key Terms

  • process studies
  • profiling floats
  • wind speed
  • radar altimetry
  • numerical models

  • southern ocean
  • sensing capabilities
  • autonomous platforms
  • understanding finding
  • traditional variables

  • upper ocean
  • understand climate
  • sea surface
  • approach laboratory
  • continuous time

  • explicit consideration
  • airborne remote
  • submesoscale process
  • wave field
  • time scale

  • global physical
  • accelerating pace
  • recent attempts
  • global coverage
  • significantly complement

  • eddy simulation
  • orbital remote
  • california cooperative
  • resolve sea
  • ocean acidification


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