Houghton Lectures

The ocean surface boundary layer (Special PAOC Colloquium):

The ocean surface boundary layer (OSBL) occupies the upper 100m or so of the oceans and is responsible for controlling the transport of heat and momentum from the atmosphere into the deeper ocean, and plays a major role in regulating plankton communities. Recent observations and simulations are revolutionising our picture of the OSBL, and reveal that the surface waves on the ocean surface fundamentally change the physics of the OSBL. In this lecture I shall present new observations, theory and modelling and new ideas for representing the OSBL in models, which has the potential to correct long standing biases in the climate models.