I have already mentioned it: it is about time that I present the topics that I am interested in my work. As I have indicated on this site home page and as can be deduced from my resume, my areas of expertise are applied mathematics and theoretical computer science. My scope is physical oceanography. Specifically, I am reproducing ocean dynamics on computers.
However, though being a still evolving discipline, the study of ocean dynamics has a long history. The oldest references I have found were written during the antique times. The main topic on ocean dynamics they address is tide. I intend to present this story here. Much of the information you will find in the following comes from Bernard Simon’s La Marée océanique côtière1B. Simon, 2007. La Marée océanique côtière, collection “Synthèses”, Institut océanographique éditeur.. The following is an extract from the introduction of my Ph.D. thesis2Y. Le Bars, 2010. Modélisation de la dynamique océanique barotrope dans l’estuaire et le plateau amazoniens, Ph.D. thesis, Université de Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier.. This thesis focused on the development of an ocean model and its application to the estuary of the Amazon, so I do not claim to have achieved a definitive historical study: the following is a summary, albeit detailed, but with all the limitations of this exercise.