Ocean, Ice, Atmosphere Seminar

Contour advection is a powerful, Lagrangian method of analysing conserved tracers and will be described in some detail. Since the technique can resolve the isolines of an advected tracer to a very fine level of detail, it provides an intimate picture of chaotic mixing processes within the atmosphere. Some simple theories of chaos will be discussed within the context of advection processes and their possible application to chaotic mixing in general and contour advection in particular expounded. As its name implies, contour advection can predict the evolution of only a single contour of a tracer and so a potential method of retrieving isolines from satellite data will be described. Such a method could help to validate contour advection models as well as shed light on chaotic mixing processes in the real atmosphere. Possible directions for further work will be suggested.