Computer-Aided Visualization and Animation of Ocean Wave Dynamics
Charles Frank Gould, Dennis J. Whitford · Journal of Geoscience Education · 2000
Ocean waves are the most recognized phenomenon in oceanography. Students majoring in oceanography first encounter the complex mathematical theories of these surface gravity waves in upper-level undergraduate and lower-level graduate courses. Linear wave theory is the simplest theory that mathematically models these waves, yet its complex mathematical equations are often difficult and confusing to students. This difficulty is due to linear wave theory's inherent dependence on time and space along with the mixture of linear, hyperbolic, and trigonometric functions in its equations. As a result, verbal descriptions and twodimensional illustrations are often insufficient for thorough student comprehension. For this reason, computer-aided visualizations and animations, accompanied by concurrent oral narration, are a welcome pedagogical supplement to traditional methods of instruction.We wrote a MATLAB software program to compute, visualize, and animate various ocean-wave dynamics topics for instructional purposes. These topics include: water particle orbital paths, displacements, velocities and accelerations; static, dynamic and total sub-surface pressures; and velocity potentials and streamlines. By using our computer code, these visualizations of ocean-wave dynamics can be produced without benefit of an extensive background in computer programming.