User:Fberonvera

Francisco Javier Beron-Vera (born 25 October 1970) is Research Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the Rosenstiel School of the University of Miami. Original from Argentina, he obtained a Licentiate in oceanography from Instituto Tecnologico de Buenos Aires (ITBA) in 1994. He then moved to Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico to pursue graduate education, obtaning MSc (1996) and ScD (2001) degrees in physical oceanography from Centro de Investigacion Cientifica y de Educacion Superior (CICESE) under the direction of the late Pedro Ripa. Beron-Vera subsequently moved to Miami to pursue postdoctoral training at the Rosenstiel School. He joined its faculty in 2010.

Beron-Vera has many years of experience working at the interface of nonlinear dynamics and ocean/geophysical fluid dynamics. His research program includes three main lines. The first line uses and develops deterministic techniques from finite-dimensional dynamical systems to study transport and mixing processes in oceanic/geophysical flows. A second line employs techniques from ergodic theory to investigate the long-term behavior of transported scalars. The third line applies geometric tools from infinite-dimensional systems to derive reduced ocean models and investigate their stability properties. All three research lines are motivated by very concrete environmental problems of societal relevance.

Geometric finite-dimensional dynamics

Building on objective (i.e., material-frame-indifferent) geometric notions of fluid deformation, with ETH collaborator George Haller, Beron-Vera postulated the geodesic theory of Lagrangian Coherent Structures (LCSs). The LCSs are material surfaces, i.e., composed at all times of the same fluid trajectories, that form the building blocks of the concealed backbone which organize transport and mixing in a fluid system. Environmental problems in which LCSs play a critical role include the transport and mixing of chemical species like ozone in the stratosphere and the transport and mixing of pollutants like oil in the ocean. By extending the geodesic LCS theory, the notion of coherent Lagrangian vortex—the fluidic analogous of black hole in cosmology—was subsequently formulated. This was done to provide a resolution to the old fluid mechanics problem of how to define the vortex concept unambiguously. Coherent Lagrangian vortices are responsible of effectively executing long-range transport in the ocean, for instance of heat and salinity with consequences for global climate. They also provide confinement, such as that needed for the development of ozone holes in the stratosphere. While chemical tracers like ozone and pollutants like light oil can be considered to be passive, other pollutants like plastic debris in the ocean cannot owing to their finite-size, which called for a new paradigm. In response to this call, with RSMAS collaborators Maria Olascoaga and Philippe Miron, we derived a Maxey–Riley theory for inertial ocean dynamics known as the BOM equation. Successfully tested in the lab and in the field, the BOM equation promises significant progress in predicting the drift of Sargassum rafts and mitigating the effects of their invasions.

Probabilistic finite-dimensional dynamics

Infinite-dimensional dynamics