Sean Haney Memorial Symposium 2024

Scripps institution of oceanography
Feb 14-16 2024

the second annual sean haney memorial symposium will take place on wednesday, february 14th at the Marine Conservation and Technology Facility (MCTF), Room 210

This year’s speaker is Dr. spencer jones of Texas A&M UNIVERSITY who will present:

“Disentangling ocean dynamics at multiple scales: fronts vs internal waves & gyres vs. overturning”

Abstract: This talk describes two new diagnostic tools for dividing up ocean flows into their component parts, so that we can understand these flows better. The first diagnostic tool, Lagrangian filtering, aims to divide submesoscale ocean surface velocities into i) the velocity associated with inertia-gravity waves, and ii) the non-wave part of the velocity field, including fronts, eddies and other "balanced" parts of the flow. In general, inertia-gravity waves have frequencies higher than the Coriolis frequency and non-wave flows have frequencies lower than the Coriolis frequency. But in regions where the larger-scale velocity field is fast (like western boundary currents), both inertia-gravity waves and non-wave flows are Doppler shifted: this makes them more difficult to separate. Lagrangian filtering allows us to correct for this Doppler shift and separate these flows more accurately.

The second diagnostic tool aims to clarify heat transport variability in the Atlantic basin by separating the heat transport by the overturning from the heat transport by the gyres. Traditional diagnostics perform this partition using a zonal mean in depth space. However, modern oceanographers often define the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation in density space because water parcels follow surfaces of constant density in the absence of strong vertical mixing. My new diagnostic makes use of this idea, together with physical insights about the pathway of AMOC, to divide the heat transport by the overturning and heat transport by the gyres.

Schedule:

Wednesday, February 14th

• 4:00 pm Arrive and Introductory remarks

• 4:30 pm: Public lecture by Spencer Jones from Texas A&M University titled “Disentangling ocean dynamics at multiple scales: fronts vs internal waves & gyres vs. overturning” at the Marine Conservation and Technology Facility (MCTF), Room 210 (8890 Biological Grade, La Jolla, CA 92037)

  • Zoom link:

    https://ucsd.zoom.us/j/93566699737?pwd=R281bzVwNHpWNnNVUGtVRDVKUENQUT0

    Meeting ID: 935 6669 9737

    Password: feb14

• 5:30-7:30 pm: Reception at MCTF on the patio adjacent to Room 210

Thursday, February 15th

• 9:30 am: Surf on south side of SIO pier

Friday, February 16th

• 5:00 - 8:00 pm: SIO Happy Hour (“TG”) at Surfside, hosted by Sean’s friends & colleagues. Please wear your Hawaiian shirt!
  Address: 8604 El Paseo Grande, La Jolla, CA 92037

About the memorial series:

Sean Haney was a physical oceanographer who worked at SIO from 2015 until 2021. After Sean passed away, an endowed fund was established at UCSD —the Sean Haney Memorial Lecture Endowed Fund— dedicated to organize a symposium every year to foster the exciting science that Sean was so passionate about.

If you would like to donate to future Sean Haney memorial lectures, please go to https://giveto.ucsd.edu/giving/home/add-gift and and enter “Sean R. Haney Memorial Lecture Endowment” in the search bar.