The objective of this award is to support an international workshop at the Banff International Research Station (BIRS) on "Uncovering Transport Barriers in Geophysical Flows". The methods covered by the workshop include the topics of Lagrangian Coherent Structures (LCSs), set-theoretical approaches to Lagrangian coherence, probabilistic methods, and Lagrangian indicators motivated by ergodic theory. The goal is to bring together researchers with expertise in a variety of techniques, find common ground, and thereby develop a coordinated approach to the problem of geophysical transport. This interaction will inspire new theoretical research and advance the development of practical tools for real world application.
The need to develop robust mathematical methods to identify the key dynamic structures that act as the hidden skeleton of transport in complex geophysical flows has never been more pressing, given their role in organizing climate processes (e.g. algal blooms, ozone transport) and environmental disasters (e.g. Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Icelandic volcanic ash cloud, Fukushima nuclear disaster). New tools that emerge as a result of this workshop have the potential to profoundly influence decision making strategies for the ocean, including such scenarios as the deployment of clean up equipment during an oil spill or the focus regions for a search and rescue operation. The outcomes of this workshop will be summarized in a 10-page summary document and distributed to government agencies and industry. Junior faculty and postdoctoral researchers will interact with leading faculty, developing a future pool of talent in this rapidly advancing and globally important research topic.
A one week long workshop on Uncovering Transport Barriers in Geophysical Flows was held at the Banff International Research Station in Banff, Alberta, Canada. Twenty-three international participants presented new work on mathematical methods and software for understanding the transport properties of complex fluid flows, with a view to important research applications such as environmental hazards including oil spills and ocean debris. Examples of recent scenarios where such methods would have made a vital contribution include the Deep Water Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and the trail of debris and radioactive pollution arising from the Tohoku Tsunami disaster in Japan. The principal methods discussed were the Variational, Transfer Operator and Braid Thoery methods. These methods provide a new way to analyze the transport properties of environmental flows, which remains a highly challenging topic for scientists due the intricate structure and time-varying nature of such flows. New software tools were presented with accompanying training and all the presentations were recorded, including several review lectures by leaders in the field. The outcome of the workshop was to give clearly identify the major achievements to date and give direction for the important challenges that lie ahead. All the materials from the workshop are freely available to the general public at: www.birs.ca/events/2013/5-day-workshops/13w5089
