Physical Oceanography
Boris Galperin
Boris Galperin
Associate Professor
Physical Oceanography
Ph.D., Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, 1982
Office Phone: 727.553.1249
Email: bgalperin@usf.edu
CV: View PDF
Research: Atmospheric; Oceanic and Planetary Turbulence; Theory, Modeling, Experiments
Specialties: Physical Oceanography, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Turbulence Theory
and Simulations, Turbulent Mixing, Transport and Diffusion, Planetary Atmospheric
Circulations
Circulations in atmospheric, oceanic and planetary systems feature turbulence and
different kinds of waves. The character of turbulence 鈥� wave interaction changes from
scale to scale and, due to strong nonlinearity, processes on different scales affect
each other in many different ways. On the largest scales, a flow may become strongly
anisotropic and self-organize into a system of alternating bands as observed on all
giant planets. Similar but much weaker bands exist in the world ocean. We have discovered
a new flow regime underlying this phenomenon; today it is known as zonostrophic turbulence.
The existence of this regime on Jupiter has been confirmed by the data collected by
a spacecraft Cassini.
My group is continuing this research using theoretical, numerical and experimental
techniques. In addition, we develop novel analytical tools to describe turbulence
鈥� wave interactions and develop models that can be used in codes describing oceanic
and atmospheric circulations on different scales. One of such tools is the Quasi-Normal
Scale Elimination (QNSE) model that has been implemented in the state-of-the-art numerical
weather prediction system WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting) developed at the
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). This research is also ongoing.