Boris Galperin

Associate Professor

Personal profile

About

Circulations in atmospheric, oceanic and planetary systems feature turbulence and different kinds of waves. The character of turbulence – wave interaction changes from scale to scale and, due to strong nonlinearity, processes on different scales affect each other in many different ways. On the largest scales, a flow may become strongly anisotropic and self-organize into a system of alternating bands as observed on all giant planets. Similar but much weaker bands exist in the world ocean. We have discovered a new flow regime underlying this phenomenon; today it is known as zonostrophic turbulence. The existence of this regime on Jupiter has been confirmed by the data collected by a spacecraft Cassini.

My group is continuing this research using theoretical, numerical and experimental techniques. In addition, we develop novel analytical tools to describe turbulence – wave interactions and develop models that can be used in codes describing oceanic and atmospheric circulations on different scales. One of such tools is the Quasi-Normal Scale Elimination (QNSE) model that has been implemented in the state-of-the-art numerical weather prediction system WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting) developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). This research is also ongoing.

Related documents

Education/Academic qualification

Ph.D., Technion - Israel Institute of Technology

… → 1982

M.A., Latvian State University

… → 1975

Special School in Physics and Mathematics in Kiev, Ukraine

… → 1970

Disciplines

  • Life Sciences
  • Oceanography