Physical Oceanography Department Department Chair: Robert A. Weller and Department Administrator: Maryanne H. Wray   E-mail     Print     PDF

	Enlarge Image WHOI scientist Claudia Cenedese (in dark shirt) simulates fluid flow and eddies around seamounts using a rotating table and colored dyes. Rachel Bueno de Mesquita (in pink) is a visiting researcher from the University of Rome. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Physical oceanography is the exploration and study of the physics and geography of the ocean currents and water properties. Some major components of physical oceanography are the dynamics of ocean currents on scales from centimeters to global, the variability of these currents on time-scales from seconds to millennia, ocean wave phenomena, the distribution of heat and salt and their transport through the ocean basins, the exchange of momentum, heat and freshwater between the ocean and the atmosphere, and interactions between oceans and rivers, estuaries, ice and marginal seas. Physical oceanography has important applications in global climate, oceanic mixing, and coastal studies, as well as being a key element in interdisciplinary studies of primary production, hydrothermal vents, and oceanic flux and storage of carbon dioxide.