GEO9926 – Turbulent Boundary Layers in the Atmosphere and Ocean
Course description
Schedule, syllabus and examination date
Course content
The atmosphere's lower layer and the ocean's upper layer are important regions strongly coupled through air-sea fluxes of mass, momentum and energy. The layers are turbulent, with highly energetic and rapidly varying motions that are hard to predict.
The first part of the course covers basic elements of turbulence theory: Reynolds decompositions, turbulent cascades and fluxes, and stability. The second part focuses on the atmospheric boundary layer, including unstable and stable boundary layers. The third part considers the surface ocean, the surface wave-modulated momentum and heat transfer, the mixed layer, and upper ocean currents.
Learning outcome
After completing this course, you will have obtained a basic knowledge of
- basic statistics (means, variances, etc.) and Fourier transforms
- turbulence theory (energy cascades, predictability)
- stable and unstable boundary layers and convection
- turbulent fluxes of heat and momentum
- the relevance of boundary layers to the ocean and atmosphere dynamics
- subgrid scale parameterisations used in ocean and weather prediction models, as well as in climate models
Admission to the course
PhD candidates from the University of Oslo should apply for classes and register for examinations through?Studentweb.
If a course has limited intake capacity, priority will be given to PhD candidates who follow an individual education plan where this particular course is included. Some national researchers schools may have specific rules for ranking applicants for courses with limited intake capacity.
PhD candidates who have been admitted to another higher education institution must?apply for a position as a visiting student?within a given deadline.
Formal prerequisite knowledge
The course includes a compulsory field course and excursions. A health-and-safety course for safety in the field must be passed before you can go on these:
Recommended previous knowledge
Overlapping courses
- 10 credits overlap with GEO4926 – Turbulent Boundary Layers in the Atmosphere and Ocean.
- 3 credits overlap with GEO4964 – Upper Ocean Processes and Transport.
Teaching
Teaching consists of 4 hours of lectures per week over the entire semester. In addition, there will be 2 field trips, one on the Oslo Fjord and another at a site on land.?From each field trip, a project report must be approved in order to sit the final exam.
Attendance at the first lecture is compulsory. Students who fail to meet are considered to have withdrawn from the course unless they have previously given notice to the Student administration (studieinfo@geo.uio.no).
We reserve the right to change the teaching?form and examination of the course in semesters where 5 or fewer students have been admitted.?
General information about excursions at the Department?of Geosciences
As?the?teaching involves laboratory and/or fieldwork, you should consider taking out a separate travel and personal risk insurance.?Read about your insurance coverage as a student.
Examination
Two project reports and a presentation on a relevant topic must be approved before you can sit the final exam.?
A final oral examination counts 100% towards the final grade.
Mandatory assignments are valid for 5 semesters starting from the semester they were approved the first time.
It is possible to take the exam up to 3 times. If you?withdraw from the exam?after the deadline or during the exam, this will be counted as an examination attempt.
It will also be counted as 1 of the 3 attempts to sit the exam for this course if you sit the exam for the following course:?
Examination support material
Language of examination
The examination text is given in English. You may submit your response in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English.
Grading scale
Grades are awarded on a pass/fail scale. Read more about?the grading system.
Resit an examination
Students who can document a valid reason for absence from the regular examination are?offered a postponed examination at the beginning of the next semester.
Re-scheduled examinations are not offered to students who withdraw during, or did not pass, the original examination.
More about examinations at UiO
- Use of sources and citations
- Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
- Withdrawal from an exam
- Illness at exams / postponed exams
- Explanation of grades and appeals
- Resitting an exam
- Cheating/attempted cheating
You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.