CCPO Circulation, Spring 1994
The MPC Project
In the coastal/open ocean interface, there is a plethora of flow
phenomen aranging from fronts, squirts, jets, streamers, etc. to
intense mid-ocean cyclones and anticyclones. The space scales for these
features range from 1to 50 km while the time scales vary from hours to
weeks. It is difficult forconventional circulation models to resolve
such a wide range of scales. To overcome this difficulty, CCPO
scientists, JOHN HOLDZKOM, CHET GROSCH, and A. D. KIRWAN, JR., working
with M. Zubair and Nadima Kauser of the Computer Science Department,
have been developing analternate approach. Instead of solving the
hydrodynamic equations of motion and conservation of mass on a discrete
geographic grid, these scientists solve the hydrodynamic equations at
particles using information interpolated from thegrid. The particle
density is large enough to resolve the time and space scales of the
phenomena of interest. Typical simulations might use over amillion
particles. The numerical procedure requires regular exchange
ofinformation between the particles and the geographic grid. To
accomplish this, the scientists are using a very efficient computer
network message-passing construct that allows selected nodes on a
network to emulate a massively parallel computer (MPC). In addition to
resolving the wide range of phenomenological flow scales in the coastal
ocean, this approach has severalother advantages. The number of nodes
can be varied to suit the requirementsof specific simulations. The
code, which is being jointly developed on the CCPO and the Computer
Science networks, can easily be transferred toMPCs at other sites when
completed. This approach also allows users to take advantage of a
network to speed up calculations. Perhaps even more important, users
are able to take advantage of the extended memory in a network. In
effect, the approach allows users todevelop code inexpensively and
conveniently in-house on an existing networkand then transfer it to
other users or massively parallel computers. When completed, the model
will not replace conventional gridded models, however,it should prove
to be very useful for studying the movement and dispersionof
contaminants in the coastal waters. The efforts of the the CCPO
scientistsare supported by the Office of Naval Research as a component
of an Advanced Research Initiative on applications of MPCs.
Community Outreach
One of the goals of the Center is to interact with the community
byproviding educational outreach programs. On April 28, the Center
hosted two members of the Girls Incorporated Center for Youth of
Southwest Hampton Roads (formerly the Girls Club) in honor of ``Take
Our Daughters to Work Day,'' an event sponsored annually by the
National Ms. Foundation to provide girls with exposure to careers in
non-traditional fields. Girls Incorporated works in conjunction with
local businesses and institutions to introduce young women to
non-traditional professionals who serve as mentors. Some of the
fields of interest for this year's event were educational
administration, veterinary medicine, architectural design, and
oceanography. EILEEN HOFMANN was chosen to share her experience in
oceanography with Ashley Boone and Heather Davis, members of Girls
Incorporated, as part of their ``career experience.'' The program
started with a luncheon for the girls and their mentors inPortsmouth.
CATHY LASCARA attended as a representative of the field of
oceanography and brought the girls to the Center for an afternoon
tour, which consisted of meeting with faculty and students and getting
acquainted with the work done at the Center. Ashley and Heather
talked with LIZSMITH about how satellites can measure sea surface
temperature and why it is important. CAITLIN MULLEN introduced them
to some remote sensing work that she is doing on the Gulf Stream.
LINDA LAWSON discussed the role of mathematics in the physical
sciences with the girls. YVETTE SPITZ showed them real-time data from
the NOAA oceanographic and observational station at the Chesapeake Bay
Bridge Tunnel. A video and slides about the Palmer LTER Antarctic
expeditions were presented by Eileen and Cathy. Several students and
staff also attended this fascinating presentation. Overall, the
program was very positive for both the mentors and the girls. Ashley
and Heather's enthusiasm about oceanography made it a
rewarding experience for everyone involved.
Student Profiles
BRUCE LEE LIPPHARDT, JR. received his B.S. in oceanography from
theU. S. Naval Academy in 1984. After completing training in the
Navy's Nuclear Power program, he served for three years as a division
officer on board the USS Cincinnati. In March 1989, he was transferred
to shore duty as an operational test director for submarine sonar
systems. Inthe fall of 1990, he resigned his commission and accepted
a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate fellowship to
pursue a Ph.D. in physical oceanography under A. D. Kirwan, Jr. Bruce's
dissertation research involves the use of a feature model to study the
kinematics of dipole rings. He is also interested in using
Lagrangiandata to evaluate numerical models and in understanding the
dynamics ofoceanic flow near the continental shelf break. His
dissertation isentitled, ``Investigation of Cross-Shelf Transport by
Baroclinic Vortex Pairs in the Mid-Atlantic Bight Region.''After
graduation, Bruce intends to pursue a postdoctoral position, and
wouldlike to become a professor of physical oceanography.
ANDRY WILLIAM RATSIMANDRESY received his B.S. in physics from the
University of Madagascar in 1989. In 1991, Andry came to the United
States to starthis M.S. program in physical oceanography under the
direction of John Klinck. Andry is interested in processes occurring
near inlets. During his study at CCPO, his research focuses on
transport of larvae fromthe open ocean to the estuarine nurseries.
His work is in collaboration with Francisco Werner from the University
of North Carolina, Chapel Hill,North Carolina.Upon Andry's graduation
from ODU, he plans to return to his native country,Madagascar, to
continue his research in oceanography on the waters around Madagascar.
Since the area around Madagascar is quite new for
oceanographic research, Andry is hoping to work with scientists from
other countries, suchas South Africa and Mozambique and to continue
his collaboration withresearchers in the United States.
New Face at CCPO: Liz Smith
ELIZABETH (Liz) SMITH arrived at CCPO in November 1993 to begin work
on agrant from the NASA Mission to Planet Earth Program to validate a
new satellite-derived sea surface temperature (SST) data set. SST may
be among the best known oceanic parameters, thanks to the advent of
space-borne observing systems in the 60's and 70's. It is, however,
essential to measure at sea those parameters which are deduced from
satellites and make the appropriate comparisons. The goal of Liz's
work is to provide a quantitative assessment of a newly processed SST
data set, called the Pathfinder SST. Thejoint NASA/NOAA Pathfinder
program will produce long time-series of remote-sensing data sets
applicable to global change research prior to the availability of data
from the EOS satellites. Liz will carry out an independent validation
of global AVHRR SST fields and provide feedback to the algorithm
development team at the University of Miami and to the dataproduction
team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). After receiving a B.S. in
Marine Science in 1982 from the University of SouthCarolina, Liz spent
two years assisting Dr. Ned Smith at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic
Institution, characterizing South Florida's Indian River estuary. She
was awarded a NASA Traineeship to pursue graduate studies andreceived
an M.S. in Oceanography from Florida State University in 1987, as
a student of Dr. Tony Sturges. Liz spent the last six years as a
member of the technical staff at JPL in Pasadena, California.
Primarily NASA-funded, JPL plays a major role in NASA's unmanned space
and planetary research and exploration programs. Liz's position as
project scientist for the NASA Ocean Data System and later, the EOSDIS
Physical Oceanography Archive Center, afforded her the opportunity to
learn about the use of satellites to study the ocean. Liz was the
technical manager of the Pathfinder AVHRR SST production task at
JPL, and she provided scientific and technical guidance to the users of
Seasat, CZCS, and AVHRR data, as well as to system developers.
Computers: A Way of Life For CCPO
Daily life at CCPO revolves around computers, for better or worse.
CCPO uses them to store and manipulate observations, to run and analyze
numerical models, to write documents of various sorts (proposals,
papers, technical reports, and so forth), and to communicate locally,
regionally, and internationally. Under the direction of JOHN KLINCK,
associate professor and vice director for Center computing at CCPO,
there was a decision made at the early birth of the Center that
everyone in the Center would have a workstation on their desk and that
these computers would be linked by a network so that various resources,
such as disk space andprinters, would be shared. The workstation
provides access to local mailand other sources of information. This
focus on electronic communication reduces the amount of paper being
used and provides an easy method for circulating information rapidly
through mail, or more slowly, through local bulletin boards (news). It
also allows us access to the growing information provided by the global
computer network. Another important use for the computer system is to
provide Center researchers and students a means to make calculations
which involve working with observations or numerical models. Several
levels of computer power areprovided, starting with the individual
workstations which are Sun SPARCStations that run the UNIX operating
system. The capacity of these computers satisfies the majority of
users in the Center. At any one time,about 10 percent of the computer
users need more computer power, which is provided by a Silicon Graphics
4D/310, a CDC 4330, and an IBM RS 6000/590. If greater performance is
needed, then the University connection to the Internet provides access
to any number of supercomputer centers around the world where the
largest computers are available. The Center computer system also
stores considerable data about the earth andits oceans. Much of this
information is on CD-ROM, which are becoming a popular way for volumes
of data to be distributed by various research institutes and government
agencies. The Center has a few dozen disks, each storing up to 650
megabytes, with more arriving all the time (a dozen or more per year).
Other data at the center is on tapes that have been obtained by
individuals from other researchers ofvarious data storage
agencies. Finally, there is a steady stream of new information coming
into the Center in the form of observations in the Chesapeake Bay and
ocean surface temperature observations from satellite off the area of
Virginia and North Carolina. We are now working on a graceful way to
catalog all of this information to make it more readily
available.
CCPO Represented at EGS Conference
The XIX General Assembly of the European Geophysical Society (EGS) was
held at the University of Grenoble, Grenoble, France, April 25--29,
1994. The scientific program included about 100 sessions encompassing
Solid Earth Geophysics, Oceans Atmosphere, Solar-Terrestrial Sciences,
Planetary Solar System Sciences, Hydrology, and Nonlinear Processes in
Geophysics, as well as Natural Hazards. More than 3,000 scientists
from Europe and North America participated in the meeting. Six papers
by CCPO scientists were presented at the Assembly. In addition,
A. D. KIRWAN, JR., of CCPO, was co-convener of the session, ``Chaos
Versus Stochasticity in Geophysics.'' Below is a list of those
presentations by CCPO researchers and students:
J. J. HOLDZKOM II and A. D. KIRWAN, JR., ``DynamicalSystems Aspects of a Nonlinear
Hydrodynamic Lens Model.''
S. B. Hooker, of NASA/Goddard Space Flight
Center,Greenbelt, MD; J. W. Brown, of RSMAS, Miami, FL; A. D. KIRWAN,
JR.; and R. P. Mied and G. J. Lindemann, both of the Naval Research
Laboratory, Washington, DC, ``Forecasting the Evolution of a Warm Core
Ring.''
A. D. KIRWAN, JR., B. L. LIPPHARDT, JR. and R.P. Mied of the
Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC, ``Baroclinic Rotating
Modons: Exact Solutions to the Nonlinear Potential Vorticity Equations.''
A. D. KIRWAN, JR., C. E. GROSCH, J. J. HOLDZKOM
II, and N. Kausar and M. Zubair, both of the Department of Computer
Science, ``Particle in Cell Simulations on MPPS: Very Large Dynamical
Systems.''
M. TONER and A. D. KIRWAN, JR., ``Topology of aChaotic
Two-Dimensional Climate Model.''M. TONER and A. D. KIRWAN, JR.,
``Parametric Time Dependence and Bifurcation Analysis of a Climate
Model.''
Just the facts...
Graduates
M.S.: ANDRY RATSIMANDRESY, May 1994, Advisor: John Klinck.
Grants/Contracts Awarded
L. P. ATKINSON, G. T. CSANADY, J. L. MILLER,and A. VALLE-LEVINSON,
``Effects of Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel Pilings on Water Column
Stratification in the Lower Chesapeake Bay,''$24,875, Sverdrup
Corporation.
A. D. KIRWAN, ``Nonlinear Secondary Oceanic Flows: TheirRole in the
Transport of Mass Momentum and Energy,'' $39,075, Office of Naval
Research.
E. E. HOFMANN and J. M. KLINCK, ``Long-term Ecological Research on the
Antarctic Marine Ecosystem: An Ice-dominated Environment,'' $64,069,
University of California.
E. E. HOFMANN and J. M. KLINCK, ``Coupled Oyster-by-Hydrodynamic
Model for Galveston Bay and the Galveston by Ship Channel Project,''
$23,314, Texas A&M Research Foundation.
J. L. MILLER, ``Planning Visit for Development of a Brazil
Current--Continental Shelf Interaction Study,'' $4,001, National
ScienceFoundation.
E. A. SMITH, ``AVHRR Pathfinder Ocean Data Validation,''$25,000, Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology.
G. H. WHELESS and L. P. ATKINSON, ``Along shore Transport and Larval
Recruitment (SABRE-2),'' $16,455, Virginia Graduate Marine Science
Consortium.
Publications
M. M. DEKSHENIEKS, E. E. HOFMANN, and E. N. Powell, ``Environmental
Effects on the Growth and Development of Eastern Oyster,
Crassostrea virginica (Gmelin, 1791) Larvae: A Modeling
Study,'' J. Shellfish Res., 12(2), December 1993.
J. M. MILLER, ``Fluctuations of Gulf Stream Frontal Position Between
Cape Hatteras and the Straits of Florida,'' J. Geophys. Res.,
99(C3), 5,057-5,064, March 15, 1994.
A. VALLE-LEVINSON and R. E. Wilson, ``Effects of Sill Bathymetry,
Oscillating Barotropic Forcing and Vertical Mixing on Estuary/Ocean
Exchange,'' J. Geophys. Res., 99(C3), 5,149-5,169,March 15,
1994.
Presentations
M. M. DEKSHENIEKS, E. E. Hofmann, J. M. Klinck, and E. N. Powell, of
Texas A&M University, ``Factors Determining Recruitment Success of
Crassostrea virginica in a Temperature Latitude Estuary: A
Modeling Study.'' National Shellfisheries Meeting, Charleston, South
Carolina, April 24-28, 1994.
E. E. HOFMANN, J. M. Klinck, and E. N. Powell of Texas A&M University,
``Perkinus Marinus and Oyster Populations:Modeling the
Disease,'' National Shellfisheries Meeting, Charleston, South
Carolina, April 24-28, 1994.
A. D. KIRWAN, JR., ``Quasigeostrophic Multipole Vortices,'' Department
of Mathematics, University of Stuttgart, Germany, May 3, 1994.
J. M. KLINCK, ``Modeling Drake Passage Transports,'' IAPSO Workshop on
Interbasin Exchanges in the Southern Hemisphere, Cape Town, South
Africa, March 28-31, 1994.
L. M. LAWSON, Y. H. Spitz, and E. E. Hofmann, ``Data Assimilation
Using the Variational Method in A Marine Ecosystem Model,'' Society
for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Southeast Area Section
(SIAM-SEAS), Wake Forest University, Winston Salem, North Carolina,
March 25-26, 1994.
Papers presented by CCPO faculty, researchers, and students at
the 1994 Ocean Sciences Meeting, sponsored by ASLO and AGU, heldin San
Diego, California, during the week of February 21-25, 1994.
L. P. ATKINSON, ``Low Salinity Water into the North
Atlantic--Summer/Fall 1993.''
P. BECKER and G. Bjork of University of Goteborg, Sweden,``Residence
Times in the Upper Arctic Ocean.''
M. M. DEKSHENIEKS, E. E. Hofmann, J. M. Klinck, and E. N. Powell of
Texas A&M University, ``A Model of the Growth, Behavior and Vertical
Distribution of Oyster Larvae.''
E. E. HOFMANN, D. A. Smith, B. L. Lipphardt,Jr., J. M. Klinck, and
R. A. Locarnini of Texas A&M University, ``Circulation and Heat
Distributions on the Continental Shelf West of the Antarctic
Peninsula.''
J. J. HOLDZKOM II, A. D. Kirwan, Jr., C. E. Grosch, and M. Zubair and
N. Kausar, both of the Computer Science Department of Old Dominion
University, ``Particle in Cell Simulations of Coastal Flows Using
Massively Parallel Computers: Progress Report.''
A. D. KIRWAN, JR., B. L. Lipphardt, Jr., and R. P. Mied of Naval
Research Laboratory, Washington, DC, ``Multipole Vortices in the Gulf
of Mexico.''
J. M. KLINCK, ``Model Study of Effects of Along shore Flow on
Circulation in Submarine Canyons.''
J. E. KROLL, ``The Chaotic Evolution of a BaroclinicInstability.''
C. LASCARA, E. E. Hofmann, and R. M. Ross andL. B. Quetin, both of
Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara,
``Seasonal Changes in the Mesoscale Distributionof Antarctic Krill in
the Waters West of the Antarctic Peninsula.''
L. LAWSON, Y. H. Spitz, and E. E. Hofmann, ``Data Assimilation
Techniques Applied to A Marine Ecosystem Model.''B. L. LIPPHARDT, JR.,
A. D. Kirwan, Jr., and R. R. Mied of Naval Research Laboratory,
Washington, DC, ``Kinematics ofDipoles from a Baroclinic Modon
Solution.''
J. L. MILLER, ``Interactions Between Coastal and Estuarine Waters at
Chesapeake Bay Mouth.''J. L. MILLER, and M. da Silva and E. Campos,
both of Sao Paulo, Brazil, ``Water Mass Characteristics Observed
During Project COROAS.''
C. P. MULLEN and A. D. Kirwan, Jr., ``Kinematics ofthe Gulf Stream
Composite Imagery and Satellite-tracked Drifters.''
D. A. SMITH, E. E. Hofmann, J. M. Klinck, R. A. Locarnini of Texas A&M
University, and R. Smith of the Center for Remote Sensing and
EnvironmentalOptics, University of California, Santa Barbara, ``Palmer
LTER: Water Mass Distribution West of the Antarctic Peninsula.''
E. A. SMITH and M. K. Hamilton, A. V. Tran, and J. Vazquez, all three
of Atmospheric and Oceanography Sciences Section, Jet Propulsion
Laboratory. ``Quality Assurance and Distribution of Sea Surface
Temperature Data from the NASA/NOAA AVHRR Ocean Pathfinder
Project.''
Y. H. SPITZ and J. M. Klinck, ``Recovery of Circulation and Forcing in
an Enclosed Basin by Assimilation of Tide Gauge Observations.''
A. VALLE-LEVINSON and J. M. Klinck, ``Baroclinic Exchange in the Lower
Chesapeake Bay.''
G. H. WHELESS, ``Effects of Variable Wind Stress on the Behavior of a
Buoyant Estuarine Plume.''
CCPO CIRCULATION is published quarterly.
Contact Carole E. Blett, editor, for more information, (804) 683-4945.
Editor ........................Carole E. Blett
Technical Editor ..............Julie R. Morgan
Design Editor .................Karal L. Gregory
Distribution Manager ..........Beverly S. Mitchell
* Special recognition goes to John Holdzkom II for the title, CCPO Circulation.
Press here to return to the CCPO Circulation Menu