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Arnoldo Valle-Levinson takes up Gledden Fellowship

05/05/2009
by Caroline Wood

CWR welcome Arnoldo Valle-Levinson at morning tea. Arnoldo is an Associate Professor at the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida. He is here for three months on a Gledden Fellowship.

He will interact with CWR staff, mainly with Jorg in at least 4 activities: pursue physical estuarine studies in the Rio de la Plata, Argentina; pursue physical studies in the Patagonian ecosystems of Chile; pursue studies in Mexican estuarine systems; and become adept in the collection and processing of SCAMP data.

In the case of the Rio de la Plata, Arnoldo plans to explore the possibility of studying mixing processes associated with the very well-defined turbidity front at the transition region of the estuary. He has a data set obtained from summer and winter surveys in the year 2000 that he plans to explore.

In the case of the Patagonian systems, the idea is to explore the development of a study that examines wind-driven circulation and mixing in Patagonian fjords. During his visit, Arnoldo and colleagues from Chile will try to understand the effect of wind waves on mixing in a stratified water column.

In the case of Mexican estuarine systems, there are several possibilities that could be explored for a joint study. For instance, and this may also happen in some Australian systems, investigate systems that reverse circulation patterns according to seasonal forcing. Relevant questions there would be: how long does a system take to reverse from an estuarine-type of residual circulation to an anti-estuarine type? How long do these reversals last? For this purpose, there are plans to develop comparative studies in different systems within the tropical climate, which are affected by a dry season and a wet season and that are essentially forced by density gradients.

In the case of the microstructure profiler, Arnoldo would like to carry out a small study in one or two inlets nearby and he would like to look at the tidally averaged flows and how they compare to theoretical results. Additionally, he would to be able to determine, with SCAMP data, the role that tidally asymmetric frictional effects play on shaping the net flows at the inlet.

We wish Arnoldo a very productive and enjoyable three months with us.

Trish visiting for a week from the Melbourne Office

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