Dr. Grosch came to Old Dominion University in 1973 as a Samuel L. and Fay M. Slover Chair of Oceanography. Since graduate work at Stevens Institute of Technology, he has held research and teaching positions at various institutions including Stevens Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Pratt Institute, and the University of Reading, U.K. While at Pratt Institute, he was chair of the Department of Computer Science and director of the Computer Center. In 1989, he was a Royal Society Guest Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge, U.K. Dr. Grosch has done extensive professional consulting and currently serves as consultant for the Institute for Computer Applications in Science Engineering (ICASE).
Research
Interdecadal variability of the Northeast Pacific and its implication for biological productivity, with T. Royer of Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography, Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
This research involves the time series analysis of various long-term data sets such as the PDO, SOI, Northeast Pacific coastal freshwater discharge, Gulf of Alaska salinity and temperature, coastal air temperature, salmon and zooplankton production in the Gulf of Alaska. I use various techniques such as correlation, Fourier spectral and cross-spectral, maximum entropy spectral, wavelet spectral to look for interrelationships among the low frequency signals in order get insights into the possible dynamics. I am also building some additional analysis codes for multitaper spectral analysis and Hilbert transforms as applied to propagating EOF analysis.
Ocean Climate Variability as a Potential Influence on Steller's Sea Lion Population, with T. Royer of Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography, Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
We hypothesize that the interdecadal changes in the ocean climate will influence the biological productivity in the North Pacific and Bering Sea. The application of spectral techniques and wavelet analysis to historical oceanic and atmospheric data sets is being used to investigate the question of what drives the North Pacific gyre and its variability. The temporal variability of physical driving mechanisms is being compared to changes in the populations of Steller's sea lions, harbor seals and northern fur seals. Ocean altimeter measurements (Topex/Poseidon) will provide spatial variations of sea level slopes to be used as an index of gyre scale circulations. These sea level slopes will be compared with the longer time series of coastal sea level to determine if historical circulations changes can be detected in the coastal observations.
Studies in Transition and Time Varying Turbulent Flow
This research is focused on two little understood areas, the dynamics of the early stage transition in shear layers and the dynamics of turbulent flows arising from time varying mean flow. Shear layers occur in separated and wake-like flows and are highly unstable. However, the dynamics of these flows in the early stages of transition are poorly understood. This area is being explored using the ensemble-averaged results of stability calculations and rapid distortion theory. The dynamics of turbulent flows arising from a time varying mean flow is also poorly understood. In particular, there are many unanswered questions relating to statistical equilibrium and the basic dynamical balances in a time varying turbulent flow. The research is focused on developing and using an extension of rapid distortion theory of the disturbance field in a time varying mean flow as well as DNS and LES calculations to explore these questions.
"Doppler Turbulence Techniques for Ocean Observatories: an Interactive Approach Using In Situ Measurements and LES Models", This research involves an ocean observation program using acoustic Doppler measurements to measure various terms in the turbulent stress tensor and DNS and LES calculations of ocean turbulence. My portion of this research is to carry out the calculations in co-operation with J. M. Klinck and a Post-Doctoral Fellow. This research has just begun.
Chester Grosch's Personal Website
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