MASC530 INTRODUCTION TO PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY

Course Code:9500530
METU Credit (Theoretical-Laboratory hours/week):3 (3.00 - 0.00)
ECTS Credit:8.0
Department:Graduate School of Marine Sciences
Language of Instruction:English
Level of Study:Graduate
Course Coordinator:Prof.Dr. BETTİNA ANDREA FACH SALİHOĞLU
Offered Semester:Fall and Spring Semesters.

Course Objectives

Completing  this course, the student will learn:

*What is physical oceanography, history

*Atmosphere and Ocean (Introductory)

*What properties we observe in the ocean and how

*Seawater property distribution in the World Ocean

*Equation of state, stability and stratification

*Air-sea heat transfer and seasonality

*Ocean heat balance & the seasonal thermocline

*Freshwater and salt balances

*Water masses and the thermohaline circulation (THC)


Course Content

Physical property fields, currents, waves and tides, general circulation of the oceans, T-S analysis, ocean-atmosphere interaction, oceanographic processes in the Turkish Seas.


Course Learning Outcomes

Student, who satisfactorily complete this course will:

* Have a general understaning of physical oceanography and its history

*Learn about physical properties of the ocean and how they are observed

*Be able to identify and distinguish baroclinic and barotropic flows;  major ocean currents and circulation,

*Be able to understand geostrophys and be able to formulate equations of motion (momentum and continuity in the ocean)

* Have knowledge about variability (and its scales )in the ocean and teleconnection patterns