Physical Oceanography

Boris Galperin

Associate Professor
Physical Oceanography
Ph.D., Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, 1982
Office Phone: 727.553.1249
Email: bgalperin@usf.edu
CV: View PDF
Zonal Jets and Eddies – Planetary Science and Satellite Oceanography at the Crossroads

Research: Atmospheric; Oceanic and Planetary Turbulence; Theory, Modeling, Experiments

Specialties: Physical Oceanography, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Turbulence Theory and Simulations, Turbulent Mixing, Transport and Diffusion, Planetary Atmospheric Circulations

Circulations in atmospheric, oceanic and planetary systems feature turbulence and different kinds of waves. The character of turbulence – wave interaction changes from scale to scale and, due to strong nonlinearity, processes on different scales affect each other in many different ways. On the largest scales, a flow may become strongly anisotropic and self-organize into a system of alternating bands as observed on all giant planets. Similar but much weaker bands exist in the world ocean. We have discovered a new flow regime underlying this phenomenon; today it is known as zonostrophic turbulence. The existence of this regime on Jupiter has been confirmed by the data collected by a spacecraft Cassini.

My group is continuing this research using theoretical, numerical and experimental techniques. In addition, we develop novel analytical tools to describe turbulence – wave interactions and develop models that can be used in codes describing oceanic and atmospheric circulations on different scales. One of such tools is the Quasi-Normal Scale Elimination (QNSE) model that has been implemented in the state-of-the-art numerical weather prediction system WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting) developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). This research is also ongoing.