Susan Allen

Biography

I am a physical oceanographer with skills in fluid mechanics including scaling, analytics, laboratory and numerical modeling.  My areas of application include coastal oceanography, mesoscale meteorology and biogeochemical-physical interactions in the ocean. I am a physical oceanographer with skills in fluid mechanics including scaling, analytics, laboratory and numerical modeling.  My areas of application include coastal oceanography, mesoscale meteorology and biogeochemical-physical interactions in the ocean.

Research Interest

My largest scholarly contributions have been to 1) understanding flow over and around topography and particularly canyons, and the resulting impacts on cross-shelf exchange. I have also made significant contributions to 2) biological-physical interactions and in particular the impact of surface processes on the timing of the phytoplankton spring bloom and 3) in collaboration with D. Steyn, I have contributed to the study of atmosphere buoyancy driven flows in the mountains. 4) Lastly, I work in an interdisciplinary oceanography group within the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences. As a community member I have contributed in a number of fields, usually applying my modeling or analytic skills. If one can create a simple model of a phenomena so much of our intuition and understanding can be illustrated and quantified. My newest project (since Fall 2013) has been a short-term forecast model for the Salish Sea as part of the Marine Environment Observation, Predication and Response Network of Centres of Excellence