ABSTRACT
Oceanography is a relatively young field, barely a century old; major discoveries — such as the reason for the western intensification of currents such as the Gulf Stream and Kuroshio, and the existence of a deep sound channel in which acoustic energy can travel for thousands of kilometers with little attenuation — were not made till the 1940s. Even today, our knowledge of the circulation in the global oceans is rather sketchy. Computational ocean modeling is even younger; the very first comprehensive numerical global ocean model was formulated by Kirk Bryan [1969] in the late 1960s. However, the advent of supercomputers has led to a phenomenal growth in the field, especially in the last decade. In a brief chapter such as this, it is impossible to provide a detailed account of the many different versions of the ocean models that exist at present. Instead we will attempt to provide a bird’s-eye view of the field and a detailed account of a selected few. The objective is to provide a road map that enables an interested reader to consult appropriate sources for details of a particular approach.
