Dr. Harley E. Hurlburt

Dr. Hurlburt is a part of NRL's Ocean Dynamics and Prediction Branch, one that has world leading expertise in ocean modeling and is uniquely suited to apply dynamically efficient and skillful ocean numerical models and satellite altimetry toward an understanding of the dynamics of LLWBCs. His projects lay the scientific groundwork for ocean monitoring and prediction in an area of substantial naval interest. These are areas of heavily used shipping lanes vital to global free trade. Further, these regions connect the deeper Pacific and Atlantic to strategically important adjacent marginal and semi-enclosed seas such as the South China Sea and the Caribbean.

Dr. Hulburt's projects use altimetric assimilative versions of the NRL layered ocean models for studies of LLWBC dynamics. Specific topics already initiated include: the role of the Indonesian throughflow in the global thermohaline circulation; the pathways for flow at different depths feeding the Indonesian throughflow; coupling of the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean; the role of the South China Sea in the Indonesian throughflow; the role of the South Equatorial Current and undercurrent off of New Guinea in feeding anomalies in equatorial currents during El Ninos using models and measured time series of currents through the Vitiaz Strait by Murray (LSU); the dynamics of the North Brazil retroflection and the role of the global thermohaline circulation with Johns and Fratantoni (U. Miami); the connectivity of anomalies found along the LLWBC pathway from the North Brazil retroflection through the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf Stream east of Florida (with Murphy, FSU).