Nonlinear Physical Oceanography / Atmospheric and Oceanographic Sciences Library (PDF)

Henk A. Dijkstra is Full Professor for Physical Oceanography at Colorado State University, Fort Collins. After graduating in applied mathematics at the University of Groningen in 1984, he worked on his Ph.D. in Groningen on a Spacelab experiment and on Marangoni convection under microgravity conditions. He continued this research in chemical engineering at Cornell University. In 1990 he started working on physical oceanography and became Assistant Professor at Utrecht University, in 1996 an Associate Professor and in 2001 a Full Professor there. Henk Dijkstra has developed, consequently, the nonlinear dynamical systems approach to oceanography. Mainly to emphasize that he first computed explicit bifurcation diagram for a global ocean circulation model and explained the structure of equilibria for a hierarchy of models going from a single-hemispheric to the global configuration. He discovered the multidecadal mode in single-hemispheric thermohaline flows and explained its relevance in the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. He demonstrated the existence of steady separation patterns in northern hemispheric western boundary currents and explained the subannual variability through barotropic destabilization of these states. He first analysed the stability of the double-gyre wind driven flows in quasi-geostrophic one- and two-layer models and demonstrated its relevance with respect to low-frequency variability of the ocean gyres.

He became member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2002. He has published more than 100 papers and a book on Nonlinear Physical Oceanography in 2000. He has organized for several years a session at EGS/EGU meetings on this topic.

Wendy Welch Orlando (Northwest Research Associates, Inc.) in SIAM Vol. 44, No. 1, 2002 on the book's first edition:

"An old distinction comes to mind when considering Henk Dijkstra's satisfying new book on nonlinear physical oceanography: While many texts convey knowledge to the reader, this is a rare example of one which imparts some wisdom. (...) In summary, this text is different from most others in that it combines several different disciplines and drwas on many scientific studies in order to deduce mechanisms of ocean circulation. As it therefore cannot be substituted, and as it meets its unique goals with clarity and thoroughness, it has merited this enthusiastic review".

Several additional reviews on the first edition available, excerpts on the book's homepage on springeronline.

From the reviews of the second edition:

"This book … falls into the broad category of advanced graduate text cum research monograph. It does more than most books in this category to actually serve as a text … . The presentation of the book is excellent and includes a nice selection of color plates at the end … . The book clearly belongs on the shelf or in the departmental library of any serious physical oceanographer and is highly recommended for applied and computational mathematicians … ." (Michael Ghil, Geophysical and Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics, Vol. 102 (3), June, 2008)