T007:
Optimal Control for Ocean Processes


Session ID#: 28751

Session Description:
Optimal control methods applied to the Navier-Stokes equations, originally developed for aerospace engineering applications, have been applied to a range of problems from transient growth of hydrodynamic instabilities, transition to turbulence, sensitivity and receptivity, shape optimization, and open and closed loop control of fluid flows. These methods rely on adjoint-based optimization, familiar to physical oceanographers because of applications to ocean state estimation. They can also be applied to a broad range of questions in physical oceanography ranging from the sensitivity of ocean circulation to atmospheric forcing, bifurcation analysis and multiple stable states, for example in global circulation like the Meridional Overturning Circulation or El Nino Southern Oscillation, mesoscale dynamics such as Gulf Stream meandering, internal waves, and turbulent mixing. The method can be tailored to specific problems and implemented using traditional numerical flow solvers. This tutorial will first provide an overview of the numerical implementation of the adjoint solver and associated constraints. Then several examples will be discussed including the sensitivity of the MOC to surface forcing, hydrodynamic instabilities in internal solitary waves, and optimal perturbation of stratified shear flows. The tutorial will conclude with a discussion of open problems in physical oceanography that may benefit from optimal control approaches.
Primary Presenter:  Pierre-Yves Passaggia, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Marine Sciences, Chapel Hill, NC, United States
Presenter:  Brian L White, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Marine Sciences, Chapel Hill, NC, United States
Index Terms:

1956 Numerical algorithms [INFORMATICS]
4255 Numerical modeling [OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL]
4520 Eddies and mesoscale processes [OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL]
4568 Turbulence, diffusion, and mixing processes [OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL]
Cross-Topics:
  • PL - Physical Oceanography: Mesoscale and Larger
  • PS - Physical Oceanography: Mesoscale and Smaller
  • PO - Physical Oceanography: Other

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