Front matter

Preface

This book grew out of lecture notes for a graduate-level fluid mechanics course that I teach at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science. The course provides advanced undergraduate students or beginning graduate students with a solid foundation in fluid mechanics concepts that are essential for understanding ocean physics. While there are many excellent fluid mechanics textbooks available, most are written for either for engineering students with a focus on industrial applications, or for students of meteorology and oceanography that focus on geophysical flows. Many of our students at Rosenstiel go on to pursue research topics related to turbulence, boundary layers, and ocean surface waves, and these topics are well covered by different textbooks in these respective subdisciplines. This book bridges that gap by presenting a concise yet comprehensive treatment of classical, geophysical, turbulent, and wavy fluid mechanics processes that are relevant to atmospheric and ocean physics research.

The book progresses from fundamental concepts to increasingly complex topics. We begin with a review of vector calculus before introducing core fluid mechanics principles such as conservation of mass and momentum. The effects of Earth’s rotation and density stratification, which are crucial for atmospheric and ocean dynamics, come next. We then explore simplified yet powerful models like the shallow water equations which allow an analytical examination of most common solutions. Later chapters cover turbulence, boundary layers, and surface gravity waves - phenomena that are ubiquitous in the ocean and that are becoming increasingly important in coupled weather-ocean prediction and climate projections.

I aim to balance mathematical rigor with physical intuition throughout the text. Detailed derivations are provided, but equal emphasis is placed on understanding the underlying physics. Examples and figures help illustrate key concepts. This textbook is a work in progress and continues to evolve. I welcome feedback from students and colleagues on how to best improve it. I thank my students Stephen Casey, Katia Childs, Katelyn DeWater, Susan Harrison, Jack Lee, Ryland Lewis, Kayla Thompson, Joseph Unsworth, Mia Vallee, and Jessie Yang for their contributions so far. Special thanks to Prof. Mike Brown who previously taught this course and who gave me valuable advice on preparing for it. My hope is that this textbook will serve as a useful resource for students beginning their journey into atmospheric and/or ocean physics research.