Overview

The 2015 Coastal Ocean Environment Summer School was held at Regional Maritime University (RMU) in Accra, Ghana from August 24-27, 2015. The four-day 2015 summer school included lectures on chemical oceanography, satellite oceanography, internal gravity waves and ocean modelling, and basic topics in physical oceanography, augmented by a tour of RMU’s state-of-the-art training labs and facilities. There were four US-based lecturers, and about 50 Ghanaian participants, drawn from RMU, KNUST, the University of Ghana, and various governmental agencies and private-sector companies. At the end of the program, a closing ceremony was held, certificates were given to the participants, and the participants put forth valuable suggestions for how to improve future summer schools.

Group photo on the third day of the 2015 summer school

Instructors:

Dr. Joseph K. Ansong, Research Scientist, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan. Physical oceanography, ocean modeling, laboratory fluid dynamics.

Dr. Brian K. Arbic, Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan. Physical oceanography, ocean modeling.

Dr. Ebenezer S. Nyadjro, Research Oceanographer, University of New Orleans and Naval Research Laboratory. Satellite oceanography.

Winn Johnson, Graduate Student, Department of Chemistry, MIT/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program. Chemical oceanography

Mamudu Abdulai-Saiku, Faculty, Regional Maritime University. Maritime law.

2015 Schedule and Lectures

Day 1: Monday, August 24

Simulation of eddies and tides in global HYCOM – Brian Arbic (University of Michigan)

–Accompanying animations: Pacific barotropic and baroclinic tides (Arbic et al. 2004); Global baroclinic tides (courtesy Harper Simmons; Simmons et al. 2004) [257 MB .fli animation of baroclinic tides in two-layer global baroclinic tide model]; North Pacific steric and non-steric sea surface heights from HYCOM simulation forced by both atmospheric fields and tides (Shriver et al. 2012)

Indirect evidence for substantial damping of low-mode internal tides in the open-ocean – Joseph Ansong (University of Michigan)

Metabolic profiling of a latitudinal transect of the Atlantic Ocean – Winn Johnson (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Satellite applications in tropical oceanography: Perspectives from the Atlantic and Indian Oceans – Ebenezer Nyadjro (University of New Orleans/Naval Research Laboratory)