OCN350, Advanced Oceanography

Fall 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, Spring 2023

This course is formally called Advanced Oceanography but I think of it as the first exposure for many into the world of Quantitative Oceanography. We follow the lead of Sea Change: 2015–2025 Decadal Survey of Ocean Sciences, a free PDF available here: https://www.nap.edu/catalog/21655/sea-change-2015-2025-decadal-survey-of-ocean-sciences. Sea Change is a fantastic summary of the state of ocean science as well as future priorities (though, admittedly, it is rapidly becoming somewhat outdated!).

We analyze open datasets, including time-series data from BATS, profile data from Argo, and fisheries data from Peru, among others, and develop group projects that hone in on students’ own oceanographic interests. We also dedicate a substantial portion of the semester to the theme of Ocean Solutions, drawing on reports from Project Drawdown https://drawdown.org/programs/drawdown-learn and the Ocean Panel’s “Blue Papers”: https://www.oceanpanel.org/ocean-science#reports.

Data analysis modules are constantly evolving due to the evolution of the coding language we use (Python); the most up to date data analysis lectures and code can be found here: https://github.com/SUPScientist/Advanced-Quantitative-Oceanography.