Physical oceanography

Physical oceanography

The scientific study of the physical conditions and processes related to the motions and physical properties of ocean currents and waters.

Industry: Earth science

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Physical oceanography

Yanai wave

Earth science; Physical oceanography

An equatorially trapped wave that behaves like a mixture of gravity and Rossby waves. Yanai waves exhibit an eastward group velocity at all wave numbers k, although for large positive k is behaves ...

Instrument error

Earth science; Physical oceanography

An error that is a function of the instrument design and the ambient conditions under which it must operate. For example, the mercury barometer for surface (not mean sea level) pressure measurements ...

Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive centre (PODAAC)

Earth science; Physical oceanography

An element of EOSDIS and located at JPL, is responsible for archiving and distributing data relevant to the physical state of the ocean. Most of the data archived at PODAAC is derived from sensors on ...

Hawaii Ocean Mixing Experiment (HOME)

Earth science; Physical oceanography

An effort to observe and model mixing along the Hawaiian Ridge, a salubrious location for such an investigation since the topography is steep and energy available in the form of tides that strike the ...

North American Monsoon Experiment (NAME)

Earth science; Physical oceanography

An effort to determine the sources and limits of predictability of warm season precipitation over North American, with emphasis on time scales ranging from seasonal to interannual.

Tidal wave

Earth science; Physical oceanography

An egregious misnomer for a type of wave that has nothing to do with tides or tide-producing forces. See the more apt term seismic sea wave for a description.