JOHNSON1	Project Title "Accurate methods for computing rotation-dominated flows"
Type	Theoretical
#students	1
Orientation	Planetary scale motions are dominated by rotation. Computations of these flows are not straightforward. The numerical difficulties arise from real physical effects - in rapidly rotating flows the pressure gradient is very large and almost exactly balances the very large Coriolis acceleration. Naive application of standard methods leads to computing these terms separately and subtracting them to obtain (inaccurately) the small residual that gives the small fluid acceleration.
How	The aim is to build the underlying physics of geostrophic balance into the computations and so to compute the small accelerations directly.
What	The student will implement a modern method for near-balanced motions. If the student is successful in implementing one of the modern methods then there are at least two geometries that could yield interesting new results.
Special Knowledge	The student must have a strong fluids background and an even stronger computer software background.
Supervisor	Ted Johnson, Mathematics,UCL e.johnson@ucl.ac.uk