{"title":"A brief history of physical oceanography with Mediterranean examples","authors":"Paola Malanotte-Rizzoli","doi":"10.1007/s12210-023-01210-z","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Oceanography, or Oceanology, is a very broad name covering all the traditional sciences (physics, chemistry, biology etc.) which can be studied in the ocean context. Hence the distinction must be made using the specific names of Physical, Chemical or Biological Oceanography. This particular review is devoted to the history of Physical Oceanography, a discipline which remained at the empirical stage until roughly the middle of last century, with a slow development of the rigorous, mathematical approach and analysis required to fully understand the processes and dynamics at all space/time scales. This review wants to introduce the uninformed reader to this relatively new science, providing a concise but hopefully comprehensive outline of the milestones of its history, from the adventurous beginnings of the past centuries, to the successive, very recent theoretical and observational advances. In this progress, the scientific “giants” who made possible these advances are also presented. Their choice constitutes not only the author’s personal opinion but that of the oceanographic community at large which recognizes their crucial impact in making physical oceanography the quantitative, exact science of today. It is the author’s privilege to have personally known most of them, not only as teachers but as mentors and friends.</p>","PeriodicalId":54501,"journal":{"name":"Rendiconti Lincei-Scienze Fisiche E Naturali","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1000,"publicationDate":"2023-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Rendiconti Lincei-Scienze Fisiche E Naturali","FirstCategoryId":"103","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-023-01210-z","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Oceanography, or Oceanology, is a very broad name covering all the traditional sciences (physics, chemistry, biology etc.) which can be studied in the ocean context. Hence the distinction must be made using the specific names of Physical, Chemical or Biological Oceanography. This particular review is devoted to the history of Physical Oceanography, a discipline which remained at the empirical stage until roughly the middle of last century, with a slow development of the rigorous, mathematical approach and analysis required to fully understand the processes and dynamics at all space/time scales. This review wants to introduce the uninformed reader to this relatively new science, providing a concise but hopefully comprehensive outline of the milestones of its history, from the adventurous beginnings of the past centuries, to the successive, very recent theoretical and observational advances. In this progress, the scientific “giants” who made possible these advances are also presented. Their choice constitutes not only the author’s personal opinion but that of the oceanographic community at large which recognizes their crucial impact in making physical oceanography the quantitative, exact science of today. It is the author’s privilege to have personally known most of them, not only as teachers but as mentors and friends.
期刊介绍:
Rendiconti is the interdisciplinary scientific journal of the Accademia dei Lincei, the Italian National Academy, situated in Rome, which publishes original articles in the fi elds of geosciences, envi ronmental sciences, and biological and biomedi cal sciences. Particular interest is accorded to papers dealing with modern trends in the natural sciences, with interdisciplinary relationships and with the roots and historical development of these disciplines.