Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Coastal and Estuarine Studies, Volume 47. There can be little doubt that estuarine, coastal and shelf circulation modeling will assume increasing importance in the immediate future, as we work through the implications of industrialization for oceanic systems. These issues will place new and serious operational demands on available models, and the rapid increase in computational power we now enjoy makes it possible to respond with detailed simulations in many categories. As a result, we are witnessing an explosive growth in the quantity of model-generated information. Lacking, however, is a concomitant increase in its quality or even in quality control procedures. A single simulation exercise is easily capable of generating gigabytes of output in a matter of hours. Most of the data will necessarily go unexamined by its progenitors. Yet it is highly likely that disks full of simulation output will be used extensively as learning tools for students and researchers, as criteria for engineering design, as a basis for operational decision?]making, and in the formulation of public policy. The purpose of this volume is to assemble and present what is known about the intrinsic quality of simulation output: its "correctness" for various purposes. We have operated on the twin premises that (1) every simulation has some intrinsic value and (2) every simulation has serious drawbacks. Between these two extremes lies a vast gulf of uncertainty and potential error, which must be bridged in a professional way if modeling is to achieve its potential in the coastal ocean. This is the basic challenge put to the authors of this volume. Essentially we seek to describe and consolidate approaches, theories, and practices for extracting information from models, and to understand the limits of their proper use.

This book summarizes the modeling of the transport, evolution and fate of particles in the coastal ocean for advanced students and researchers.

Oceans play a pivotal role in our weather and climate. Ocean-borne commerce is vital to our increasingly close-knit global community. Yet we do not fully understand the intricate details of how they function, how they interact with the atmosphere, and what the limits are to their biological productivity and their tolerance to wastes. While satellites are helping us to fill in the gaps, numerical ocean models are playing an important role in increasing our ability to comprehend oceanic processes, monitor the current state of the oceans, and to a limited extent, even predict their future state.Numerical Models of Oceans and Oceanic Processes is a survey of the current state of knowledge in this field. It brings together a discussion of salient oceanic dynamics and processes, numerical solution methods, and ocean models to provide a comprehensive treatment of the topic. Starting with elementary concepts in ocean dynamics, it deals with equatorial, mid-latitude, high latitude, and coastal dynamics from the perspective of a modeler. A comprehensive and up-to-date chapter on tides is also included. This is followed by a discussion of different kinds of numerical ocean models and the pre- and post-processing requirements and techniques. Air-sea and ice-ocean coupled models are described, as well as data assimilation and nowcast/forecasts. Comprehensive appendices on wavelet transforms and empirical orthogonal functions are also included.This comprehensive and up-to-date survey of the field should be of interest to oceanographers, atmospheric scientists, and climatologists. While some prior knowledge of oceans and numerical modeling is helpful, the book includes an overview of enough elementary material so that along with its companion volume, Small Scale Processes in Geophysical Flows, it should be useful to both students new to the field and practicing professionals.* Comprehensive and up-to-date review* Useful for a two-semester (or one-semester on selected topics) graduate level course* Valuable reference on the topic* Essential for a better understanding of weather and climate

Describes use of observed patterns in understanding and modelling hydrological response, for researchers and graduate students.