Congratulations to Johnathan Hiep Vo on his graduation! Johnathan received an SM from Mechanical Engineering for his research on “Modeling Flow Encountering Abrupt Topography using Hybridizable Discontinuous Galerkin Projection Methods” with our MSEAS group at MIT.

In this work novel high-order hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin (HDG) projection methods are further developed for ocean dynamics and geophysical fluid predictions. We investigate the effects of the HDG stabilization parameter for both the momentum equation as well as tracer diffusion. We also make a correction to our singularity treatment algorithm for nailing down a numerically consistent and unique solution to the pressure Poisson equation with homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions everywhere along the boundary. Extensive numerical results using physically realistic ocean flows are presented to verify the HDG projection methods, including the formation of internal wave beams over a shallow but abrupt seamount, the generation of internal solitary waves from stratified oscillatory flow over steep topography, and the circulation of bottom gravity currents down a slope. Additionally, we investigate the implementation of open boundary conditions for finite element methods and present results in the context of our ocean simulations. Through this work we present the hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin projection methods as a viable and competitive alternative for large-scale, realistic ocean modeling.

Abstract: The increasing interest in exploring the seafloor searching for new sources of minerals in the Area, provoke a series of challenges: legal, technical, environmental and societal. The UNCLOS 1982, the implementation agreements 1994 and 1995 set the legal frameworks for exploration of minerals at the sediments, ridges and seamounts of the world ocean included in the Area (region beyond national jurisdiction). To date the sole Instrument with jurisdiction on the regulation/administration and protection of the seafloor in the Area is the International Seabed Authority (ISA). I present here the advances and gaps of knowledge of the ISA’s efforts towards a solid EIA for the Area. Evidently a worldwide collaboration (academia/public/private institutions) is needed to achieve this goal.

Biography: Sandor Mulsow is a marine geologist whose major research interest is on environmental studies at the sediment-water interface, from shallow to deep sea waters. He has worked in more than 50 different countries on different international projects under the main objective of environmental monitoring of the oceans (water column, biota, and marine sediments), creating capacity and manpower building to undeveloped countries, from Africa to Latin America. Dr. Mulsow has worked at the International Atomic Energy Agency (Monaco), Universidad Austral de Chile (tenured professor), and currently is the Head of the Office of Environmental Management and Mineral Resources of the International Seabed Authority, Jamaica. He develops tools for deep sea monitoring and holds a US patent on one of them. He has created/funded a successful bilingual elementary and high school in Valdivia-Chile, strongly focused on nature and conservation awareness projects.

At the beginning of the 20th century Vilhelm Bjerknes defined the “ultimate problem of meteorology and hydrography” as the discovery of “the laws according to which an atmospheric or hydrospheric state develops out of the preceding one” and the “precalculation of future states” from gridded analyzed observations—that is, forecasting. The development of the electronic computer and the vision of several meteorologists allowed the transformation of meteorology into a sophisticated scientific discipline based on physics and mathematics. The first successful meteorological forecast was carried out in the 1950s. Meteorological forecasting became an operational activity at the end of the 1960s. The contributions to society of such operations have been tremendous.

This paper reviews the historical development of concepts and practices in the science of ocean predictions. It begins with meteorology which conducted the first forecasting experiment in 1950, followed by the wind waves and continuing with tidal and storm surge predictions to arrive at the first successful ocean mesoscale forecast in 1983. The work of Professor A.R.Robinson of Harvard University who produced the first mesoscale ocean predictions for the deep ocean regions is documented for the first time. The scientific and technological developments that made accurate ocean predictions possible are connected with the gradual understanding of the importance of the oceanic mesoscales and their inclusion in the numerical models. Ocean forecasting developed first at the regional level, due to the relatively low computational requirements, but by the end of the nineties it was possible to produce global ocean uncoupled forecasts and coupled ocean-atmosphere seasonal forecasts.