LAGRANGIAN TRANSPORT IN GEOPHYSICAL JETS AND WAVES: THE DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS APPROACH (INTERDISCIPLINARY APPLIED MATHEMATICS, VOLUME 31)

The purpose of this book is to provide an accessible introduction to a new set of methods for the analysis of Lagrangian motion in geophysical ?ows. These methods were originally developed in the abstract mathem- ical setting of dynamical systems theory, through a geometric approach to di?erential equations that ultimately owes much to the insights of Poincar´ e (1892). In the 1980s and 1990s, researchers in applied mathematics and ?uid dynamics recognized the potential of this approach for the analysis of ?uid motion. Despite these developments and the existence of a substantial body of work on geophysical ?uid problems in the dynamical systems and geophysicalliterature,nointroductorytexthasbeenavailablethatpresents these methods in the context of geophysical ?uid ?ow. The text is meant to be accessible to geophysical ?uid scientists and students familiar with the mathematics of ordinary (mostly) and partial (sometimes) di?erential equations. It assumes little or no prior knowledge of dynamical systems theory