Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Changing Trends In Wave Heights In The U.S. Mid-Atlantic Region, Hillary Lane

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The pace and effects of climate change are an area of constant focus for coastal engineers as evolving patterns in the atmosphere worldwide affect the oceans and coasts on a regional and global scale. Surface waves respond to changing wind patterns both locally and from propagating swell, and the difficulty in predicting future wind patterns is well-established. Expectations that climate change will result in more frequent and intense coastal storms and consequently greater wave heights in the North Atlantic are still unrealized, and recent forecasts from a variety of atmosphere-ocean coupled global climate models instead predict decreasing wave heights through …

Heat Storage And Transport Processes In The Tropical Atlantic Ocean, Andras Kapolnai

OES Theses and Dissertations

Heat storage and transport processes of the tropical Atlantic play an important role in the climate of three continents. The exploration of how the warm water mass maintenance in the equatorial basin depends on various external factors is therefore an important task. This study examines the annual cycle of the warm water mass formation and its transport in the equatorial Atlantic through the interaction of the atmospheric and oceanic boundary layers. Key features of the model are the sea level wind field, equatorial upwelling rate and escape transport of the formed warm water out of the equatorial basin.

The model …