Department of Marine Sciences

Introduction to Dynamical Oceanography

(1) General

School:	Of the Environment
Academic Unit:	Department of Marine Sciences
Level of studies:	Undergraduate
Course Code:	191ΘΔ9Υ	Semester:	F
Course Title:	Introduction to Dynamical Oceanography
Independent Teaching Activities		Weekly Teaching Hours	Credits
Lectures/Turorials		5
		Total credits	5
Course Type:	Special background
Prerequisite Courses:	Successul competion of at least five 1st-year courses including Mathematics. The student needs to have essential knowledge of Descriptive Physical Oceanography, Physics (Classical Mechanics, Waves, Radiation), Calculus and Chemistry
Language of Instruction and Examinations:	Greek
Is the course offered to Erasmus students:	Yes. In their case the language of instruction and examination is English, and the course is adapted depending on each student
Course Website (Url):	https://www.mar.aegean.gr/index.php?lang=en&lesson=1060&pg=3.1.1

(2) Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

This course aims to introduce students to geophysical fluid dynamics, with application in the description of the dynamics of basic oceanic flows. The expected learning outcomes are the following:

Successful transition of the students from Classical Mechanics to Geophysical Fluid Dynamics. This is attained through the adaptation of basic classical mechanics principles (like conservation of momentum, energy, mass, angular momentum) to a form more suitable for the description of geophysical flows..
The use of the above new knowledge for the description of the dynamics of sea motions already described in the 2nd semester course “Descriptive Physical Oceanogrphy”.
Capacity building to apply methods like scale separation on the various conservaton equations in order to identify the dominant terms and facilitate the solution of complicated equations.
The potential for the transition to flows examined in following courses (i.e. sedimentary dynamics, sea-waves, coastal engineering, etc.).
The capability to connect the theoretical fluid dynamics background with computation fluid dynamics through courses like “numerical analysis” and “numerical methods and applications”.

The student is expected, upon the successful attendance of the course, to recognize the physical meaning and mathematical expression of the various principles of geophysical fluid dynamics, to identify the various terms of the equations and the processes they represent, to consider spatiotemporal scales before selecting the dominant processes, to compose the dynamical equilibria by ignoring weak processes and describe various oceanic flows based on the above capabilities.

General Competences

Search for, analysis and synthesis of data and information, with the use of the necessary technology

Decision-making

Working independently

Team work

Working in an international environment

Working in an interdisciplinary environment

Production of new research ideas

Respect for the natural environment

Criticism and self-criticism

Production of free, creative and inductive thinking

(3) Syllabus

Thermodynamics
Solid, liquid and gas phases
Temperature, pressure
Work and Heat
Molecular Diffusion
Laws of Thermodynamics
State equations
Hydrostatics
Cartesian Coordinate System.
Pressure in a motionless fluid, hydrostatic pressure.
Archimedes’ principle.
Stability of incompressible and compressible fluids.
Sea level
The mean sea-level.
The ellipsoid models for the shape of the Earth.
Geopotential and geopotential height.
Hydrodynamics: Conservation principles
Coordinate Axes.
Total and material derivative of a parameter.
Mass conservation
Principle of conservation of scalar quantities
Thermal energy conservation principle
Conservation of momentum (intertial reference systems).
Conservation of momentum (rotating reference systems).
Mechanical Energy conservation.
Conservation of angular momentum.
Oceanographic applications
Scale separation method.
Hydrostatic balance.
Vertical stability in the water column.
Molecular and turbulent diffusion of momentum.
Turbulent diffusion of scalar properties.
Frictionless motion.
Motion with friction.
Wind-generated geostrophic eddies.
The oceanic circulation
Vorticity conservation under barotropic conditions.
Examples of coastal processes
Shallow water equations.
Kelvin Waves.

(4) Teaching and Learning Methods - Evaluation

Delivery:

Face–to-face delivery.

All the necessary material, plus supplementary material is provided electronically through the e-class platform

Use of Information and Communication Technology:

The e-class platform is used extensively, both for delivery of the material to the students, as well as for examining their progress and grading their performance.

Teaching Methods:

	Activity	Semester workload
	Lectures	40
	Lectures-Seminars	26
	Assignment work (individually)	10
	Independent study	46
	Final exam	3
	*Course total*	125

Student Performance Evaluation:

The Language of evaluation for Greek Students is Greek, for foreign student is English.

The method of evaluation used to be a conclusive final written examination. However, as in the past there have been plenty of indications of students cheating on the final exam, starting in 2015-2016 the student performance evaluation is the following:

The Internet Platform eclass is used extensively to evaluate the students’ performance. In order to maintain the students’ interest throughout the semester, three tests are given via the eclass platform, accounting to a total of 60% of the grade.

The rest 40% of a student’s grade is provided by the final written exam.

In order to eliminate cheating, and obtain a better assessment of the student’s understanding of the material, we use the approach of multiple choice questionnaires, combined with random selection of a large number of questions is.

In order to give another opportunity to the students to improve their grades another chance is given if they obtain a passing grade during the final written exams.

Due to the relatively low percentage of students that will follow a physical oceanography career, the laboratory exercises are optional.

The evaluation criteria are described in the text preceding each test, as well as in the first lecture in class (and the corresponding notes).

(5) Attached Bibliography

Zervakis, V., 2013. Notes on Introduction to Dynamical Oceanography, University of the Aegean (in Greek).
Papaioannou, Α., 2019. Fluid Mechanics (in Greek). Publisher "Sofia", ISBN: 978-960-633-004-9.
Streeter/Wylie/Bedford, 2009. Fluid Mechanics (translated to Greek). Publisher "Fountas", ISBN: 978960330576-7.
Krestenitis, Y., Kombiadou, C., Makris, C., Androulidakis, I., Karambas, T., 2016. Coastal Mechanics – Marine Environmental Hydraulics. Hellenic Academic Electronic Textbooks and Teaching Aids, kallipos.gr, ISBN: 978-960-603-253-0 (in Greek).
Stewart, R. H., 2007. Introduction to Physical Oceanography. Texas A & M University, book freely available at: http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/resources/ocng_textbook/PDF_files/book.pdf
Open University, 2000. Waves, Tides and Shallow Water Processes. Butterworth-Heinemann; 1st edition.
Pond & Pickard, 1985. Introductory Dynamical Oceanography, Butterworth-Heinemann.
Mellor, G., 1996. Introduction to Physical Oceanography, American Institute of Physics.
Knauss, J. A., 2005. Introduction to Physical Oceanography. Waveland Press Inc; 2nd edition.

- Related academic journals:

Progress in Oceanography - https://www.journals.elsevier.com/progress-in-oceanography
Journal of Physical Oceanography - https://www.ametsoc.org/ams/index.cfm/publications/journals/journal-of-physical-oceanography/
Journal of Geophysical Research – Oceans - http://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/jgr/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)2169-9291/
Journal of Marine Systems - https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-marine-systems

Connection