讲座简介

Isopycnal analysis has been widely used in oceanography. 50 years ago, it was proposed that a thermodynamic function (spicity, 涩度) whose contours are perpendicular to those of density should be a useful thermodynamic variable. Searching for such a variable failed up till now; people gave up the hope and even said that such a function “does not exist”, and it is “devoid of physical meaning”.We reformulated this problem in terms of a least square problem, and solved it by a two-step linearization. A nearly perfection solution is found. Density and spicity form an orthogonal coordinate system, which is a new tool in water mass analysis. First, distance between two water masses can be clearly defined in this orthogonal coordinates. Second, density-spicity curve can be used in water mass analysis. The door is now widely open and new discoveries are on the horizon.

主讲人简介

黄瑞新，物理海洋学家，美国伍兹霍尔海洋研究所物理海洋研究室终身名誉研究员。1965年获得中国科学技术大学近代力学系学士学位。1984年获得美国麻省理工学院（MIT)和伍兹霍尔海洋研究所博士学位。曾先后在中国科学院力学研究所、美国麻省理工学院、普林斯顿地球流体力学实验室（GFDL)和夏威夷大学工作，主要从事物理海洋学和气候动力学的研究，已发表和合作发表研究论文及专著100余篇。