The Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, and Ecosystem Studies

My name is Jordan Simons and I am a rising senior at Lawrence University in Appleton Wisconsin. I am a physics and math double major with an interest in natural processes like weather and the climate – and now oceanography. The CICOES REU’s broad scope created a perfect environment for me to apply my coursework in physics and math to a topic closely related to my interests. It also gave me the opportunity to see what a future career as a researcher could be like firsthand while giving me information about graduate school.

This summer, I worked with my mentor, Walter Torres, to investigate wave-driven flow patterns. Our work was inspired by a visit to Cape Falcon (along the Oregon coastline) during the first week of the program. The Cape Falcon coastline is dominated by protruding rocky cliffs (headlands) sticking out into the ocean and the protected waters between them (embayments). How might water flow through a system like this? Where might these wave-driven currents cause drifting sea life to be concentrated?

My summer was divided into two main parts: a literature review and the application of computational models. The literature review proved to be a deep dive into applied mathematics. We wanted to learn about repelling Lagrangian coherent structures, precisely defined boundary lines in flows that we theorized could act like a barrier to sea life movement. However, as often happens with research, we changed course once we became more familiar with the theory involved. We changed our focus to rotation patterns in the flow, measured by a metric called vorticity. We were intrigued by a new computational method called Lagrangian Gradient Regression which can compute vorticity solely from particle trajectories. I spent the second half of the summer implementing this computational method in a simulated version of Cape Falcon using python and adjusting a variety of model parameters to minimize its error.

Perhaps my biggest takeaways from this summer were new perspectives on what conducting research is like. The questions asked are more than merely academic in nature: Could we adapt a method developed to understand air flow to ocean currents? Can we determine if an unexpected result is from flawed code or a flawed understanding of the underlying theory? Answering these types of questions is the essence of research, and it was impactful for me to experience that firsthand.

My experiences in this program solidified my intention to pursue graduate school. And the program’s weekly seminar series gave me additional perspectives and information on the application process. My mentor invited me to join the UW Environmental Fluid Dynamics group’s weekly lunches, where I was able to talk with current graduate students. My mentor was also able to help me facilitate conversations with faculty in other departments at the University of Washington.

My 9 weeks in Seattle were an amazing chance to refine my plans for the future while exploring a beautiful city with an amazing group of people. I am thankful I got to participate in the CICOES REU.

Project Introduction

Research Poster