Notes on the 1972 Summer Study Program in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Abstract

The effect of gravity on fluids of varying density is of fundamental importance in natural flows. This subject formed the topic of concentration for the fourteenth summer program in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. We had the good fortune to hear Stewart Turner lecture on stratified flows just after he had completed the manuscript for his book on the subject. Turner chose to emphasize nonlinear and turbulent aspects of stratified flows and, therefore, had to give up the deductive approach in favor of treatments based on dimensional analysis and similarity arguments. This summary of the many experimental studies of these flows increased our awareness of the fascinating variety of phenomena in which stratification plays so vital a role.