Ph.D. 1985 (U. of Washington); M.Sc. 1981 (U. of Washington); B.Sc. 1979 (U. of British Columbia)

Canada Research Chair, position joint with Physics and Astronomy

Office:   Ocean, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences Building A315

Phone:  250-472-4482

Fax:      250-721-6200

Web: http://web.uvic.ca/~kunze/

Subjects taught: Introduction to Physical Oceanography, Ocean Waves, Internal Waves in an Inhomogeneous Ocean, Upper-Ocean Dynamics

Research facilities:   Ocean, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences Building A302/304

 

Research Statement:

Dr. Kunze conducts research into small-scale ocean physics as it relates to stirring and mixing using dynamical interpretation of observations and theory.  Interactions ranging from the mesoscale (100 km) to the microscale (1 cm) contribute to ocean mixing and stirring.  Phenomena include fronts, eddies, internal waves, potential-vorticity-carrying finestructure, turbulence, double diffusion and surface forcing.  His long-term goal is to parameterize the impact of these "subgridscale" processes on larger scales through dynamical understanding.  Dr. Kunze's present focus is on how internal waves and turbulence interact with rough seafloor topography such as seamounts, ridges, canyons and the continental slope.  Largescale budgets of abyssal basins suggest diapycnal diffusivities of 10^-4 m^2 s^–1 while direct measurements in the stratified ocean interior away from boundaries find values an order of magnitude smaller.  Can topographically-enhanced mixing explain this difference?

Publications