Buoyancy-Driven Flows

This book summarizes buoyancy-driven flows for advanced students and researchers in oceanography, geophysical fluid dynamics, atmospheric science and Earth science.

Eric P. Chassignet (Edited by), Claudia Cenedese (Edited by), Jacques Verron (Edited by)

9781107008878, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 March 2012

444 pages, 244 b/w illus. 2 tables
26 x 18.4 x 2.8 cm, 0.97 kg

'… this book provides a very useful introduction to a wide range of ideas, theoretical concepts, observations, laboratory experiments, and numerical simulations that have been successful at accounting for the observed phenomenology … Reading this book can only be the first leg of a lifelong journey into the study of these fascinating flows.' Remi Tailleux, SIAM Review

Buoyancy is one of the main forces driving flows on our planet, especially in the oceans and atmosphere. These flows range from buoyant coastal currents to dense overflows in the ocean, and from avalanches to volcanic pyroclastic flows on the Earth's surface. This book brings together contributions by leading world scientists to summarize our present theoretical, observational, experimental and modeling understanding of buoyancy-driven flows. Buoyancy-driven currents play a key role in the global ocean circulation and in climate variability through their impact on deep-water formation. Buoyancy-driven currents are also primarily responsible for the redistribution of fresh water throughout the world's oceans. This book is an invaluable resource for advanced students and researchers in oceanography, geophysical fluid dynamics, atmospheric science and the wider Earth sciences who need a state-of-the-art reference on buoyancy-driven flows.

1. Gravity currents: theory and laboratory Paul Linden
2. Theory of oceanic buoyancy-driven flows Joseph Pedlosky
3. Buoyancy-forced circulation and downwelling in marginal seas Michael Spall
4. Buoyant coastal currents Steve Lentz
5. Overflows and convectively driven flows Sonya Legg
6. An ocean climate modeling perspective on buoyancy-driven flows William Large
7. Buoyancy-driven flows in eddying ocean models Anne Marie Tréguier, Bruno Ferron and Raphael Dussin
8. Atmospheric buoyancy-driven flows Sylvie Malardel
9. Volcanic flows Andy Woods
10. Gravity flow on a steep slope Christophe Ancey.

Subject Areas: Earth sciences [RB], Earth sciences, geography, environment, planning [R]