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Brian K. ArbicResearch AssociatePh.D., 2000, Massachusetts Institute of Technology-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program Telephone 512-471-0472 |
Research Interests
I
am a physical oceanographer interested in tides, mesoscale eddies, the
oceanic general circulation and its variability, and biogeochemistry.
My tidal and eddy research both emphasize the importance of
dissipation, and ultimately I hope to develop with others a model that
includes physically based paramaterizations of mixing driven by both
winds and tides, and to have that mixing feed back onto the general
circulation and its associated tracer fields. Other research
interests include tsunamis, paleotides and their impact on ice-sheet
dynamics and climate, and the coupling between motions in the ocean
and solid earth.
My research history: At Princeton University, along with collaborators (Steve Garner, Bob Hallberg, and Harper Simmons) I developed a forward model of the global barotropic and baroclinic tides, and I continue to work on tidal modeling. Prior to that, as a graduate student in the MIT/Woods Hole Joint Program, I worked with Glenn Flierl on geostrophic turbulence models as an idealization of the mid-ocean mesoscale eddy field. I have continued to study both eddies and tides in my research at The University of Texas. My first project in the Joint Program was with Breck Owens on quantification of subsurface temperature and salinity changes occuring on decadal timescales in the Atlantic. While a graduate student, I participated in three research cruises in the North Atlantic, for a total of about 35 days at sea.
Curriculum Vitae (includes chronological publication list) [pdf]
Selected articles and press releases on high school student Ayon Sen's success in both the Intel Science Talent Search (STS) and the Siemens Competition in Math, Science, and Technology (for work done with Rob Scott and me)
[Link to U.S. News and World Report article on the Intel STS competition, which describes the honorary lecture Ayon gave at the awards banquet] [Link to Science News Online announcement of Intel STS finalists] [Link to Intel STS press release on announcement of national finalists] [Link to Intel STS biography of Ayon/description of his project] [Link to U.S. Senate resolution congratulating the Siemens competition national finalists including Ayon] [Link to News 8 Austin article on Ayon's success in Siemens competition] [Link to Siemens press release on regional competition--click on Siemens Competition Region One Winners-California Institute of Technology, under 2007 Press Releases]Currently Funded Research Projects
Effects of small-scale bathymetric roughness on the global internal wave field
Co-PI with John Goff (U-Texas) on three-year award for 244,017 dollars from Office of Naval Research, starting
March 23, 2007. Other collaborators: Walter Smith, Karen Marks.
Collaborative Research: Understanding tidal resonances in the present-day and ice-age oceans
Co-PI with Samar Khatiwala of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (Columbia U) on three-year award for 410,907 dollars (UT part 210,475 dollars) from National Science Foundation, starting
October 1, 2006. Other collaborators: Chris Garrett, Pierre St-Laurent, Graig Sutherland, Doug MacAyeal, Glenn Milne, Jerry Mitrovica.
Embedding a forward model of barotropic and baroclinic tides into a
high-resolution general circulation model
Sole PI on five-year award for 553,115 dollars from Naval Research Laboratory, starting
September 1, 2006.
Collaborators: Harley Hurlburt, Joseph Metzger, and Alan Wallcraft of Naval Research Laboratory, Eric Chassignet of Florida State University.
Publications by subject area
Tsunamis
Smith, W.H.F., R. Scharroo, V.V. Titov, D. Arcas, and B.K. Arbic, 2005: Satellite altimeters measure tsunami: Early model estimates confirmed. Oceanography 18, 11-13.[Link to article (note second article of two)]
Paleotides
Arbic, B.K., D.R. MacAyeal, J.X. Mitrovica, and G.A. Milne, 2004: Ocean tides and Heinrich events. Nature 432, 460.[Link to article][Link to supplementary information]
Forward modeling of global barotropic and baroclinic tides
Arbic, B.K., P. St-Laurent, G. Sutherland, and C. Garrett, 2007: On the resonance and influence of the tides in Ungava Bay and Hudson Strait. Geophysical Research Letters 34, L17606, doi:10.1029/2007GL030845. [Link to article][Link to Nature Geoscience research highlight on this article]
Arbic, B.K., 2005: Atmospheric forcing of the oceanic semidiurnal tide. Geophysical Research Letters 32, L02610, doi:10.1029/2004GL021668. [Link to article]
Arbic, B.K., S.T. Garner, R.W. Hallberg, and H.L. Simmons, 2004: The accuracy of surface elevations in forward global barotropic and baroclinic tide models. Deep-Sea Research II 51, 3069-3101. [Link to article]
Simmons, H.L., R.W. Hallberg, and B.K. Arbic, 2004: Internal wave generation in a global baroclinic tide model. Deep-Sea Research II 51, 3043-3068. [Link to article]
Geostrophic turbulence and mesoscale eddies
Scott, R.B., B.K. Arbic, C.L. Holland, A. Sen, and B. Qiu, 2008: Zonal versus meridional velocity variance in satellite observations and realistic and idealized ocean circulation models. Ocean Modelling 23, doi:10.1016/j.ocemod.2008.04.009, 102-112. [Link to article]
Sen, A., R.B. Scott, and B.K. Arbic, 2008: Global energy dissipation rate of deep-ocean low-frequency flows by quadratic bottom boundary layer drag: Computations from current-meter data. Geophysical Research Letters 35, L09606, doi:10.1029/2008GL033407. [Link to article]
Arbic, B.K., and R.B. Scott, 2008: On quadratic bottom drag, geostrophic turbulence, and oceanic mesoscale eddies. Journal of Physical Oceanography 38, 84-103. [Link to article]
Arbic, B.K., G.R. Flierl, and R.B. Scott, 2007: Cascade inequalities for forced-dissipated geostrophic turbulence. Journal of Physical Oceanography 37, 1470-1487. [Link to article] [Link to corrigendum, which fixes printing error by publisher on line 27, left-hand column, page 1475 of original article: both "KE" subscripts should instead be "BC".]
Scott, R.B., and B.K. Arbic, 2007: Spectral energy fluxes in geostrophic turbulence: Implications for ocean energetics. Journal of Physical Oceanography 37, 673-688. [Link to article]
Arbic, B.K., and G.R. Flierl, 2004: Baroclinically unstable geostrophic turbulence in the limits of strong and weak bottom Ekman friction: Application to mid-ocean eddies. Journal of Physical Oceanography 34, 2257-2273. [Link to article]
Arbic, B.K., and G.R. Flierl, 2004: Effects of mean flow direction on energy, isotropy, and coherence of baroclinically unstable beta-plane geostrophic turbulence. Journal of Physical Oceanography 34, 77-93. [Link to article]
Arbic, B.K., and G.R. Flierl, 2003: Coherent vortices and kinetic energy ribbons in asymptotic, quasi two-dimensional f-plane turbulence. Physics of Fluids 15, 2177-2189. [Link to article]
Climatic change in the ocean
Arbic, B.K., and W.B. Owens, 2001: Climatic warming of Atlantic intermediate waters. Journal of Climate 14, 4091-4108. [Link to article]
Dickson, B., J. Hurrell, N. Bindoff, A. Wong, B. Arbic, W.B. Owens, S. Imakawi, and I. Yashayaev, 2001: The world during WOCE, in: Ocean Circulation and Climate, edited by G. Siedler, J. Church, and J. Gould, Academic Press, London, pp. 557-583.
Undergraduate thesis project (physics)
Arbic, B.K., S. Hatamian, M. Skalsey, J. Van House, and W. Zheng, 1988: Angular correlation test of CPT in polarized positronium. Physical Review A 37, 3189-3194. [Link to article]
Biographical Sketch
I was born in Maine but raised in the upper peninsula of Michigan. I majored in math and physics at the University of Michigan. I have worked as a waiter, door-to-door canvasser, dishwasher, laboratory assistant, and outdoor maintenance assistant. Before entering graduate school, I served in the United States Peace Corps as a secondary math
and physics teacher in Liberia and Ghana. I also travelled in eight other countries (Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, Niger, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Bostwana, South Africa) in west and southern Africa. I frequently give presentations on my experiences in Africa. I play softball and ice hockey, I'm an avid hiker and cook, and I've travelled in all the continents except Australia and Antarctica.