Kirk Bryan Jr. (born July 21, 1929), son of Kirk Bryan, Sr.(geologist, 1888–1950) is an American

oceanographer Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamics ...

who is considered to be the founder of numerical ocean modeling. Starting in the 1960s at the

Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory The Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) is a laboratory in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR). The current director is Dr. Venkatachalam Ramaswamy. It is one of se ...

, then located in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, Bryan worked with a series of colleagues to develop numerical schemes for solving the

equations of motion In physics, equations of motion are equations that describe the behavior of a physical system in terms of its motion as a function of time.''Encyclopaedia of Physics'' (second Edition), R.G. Lerner, G.L. Trigg, VHC Publishers, 1991, ISBN (Ver ...

describing flow on a sphere. His work on these schemes led to the so-called "Bryan-Cox code" with which many early simulations were made, and which led to the Modular Ocean Model currently used by many numerical oceanographers and climate scientists. In addition to his important contributions in developing numerical codes, Bryan was also involved in early efforts to apply them to understanding the global

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologic ...

system. In 1967, he published, with Michael Cox, the first model of the 3-dimensional circulation of the ocean, forced by both winds and thermodynamic forcing. In 1969, a paper with Syukuro Manabe was the first to present integrations of a fully coupled atmosphere-ocean model, demonstrating the importance of ocean

heat transport Heat transfer is a discipline of thermal engineering that concerns the generation, use, conversion, and exchange of thermal energy (heat) between physical systems. Heat transfer is classified into various mechanisms, such as thermal conduction, ...

to the climate. This work was recently named one of the top ten breakthroughs in the history of the

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

. Bryan's 1971 paper with the noted dynamicist Adrian Gill demonstrated the important role played by bottom topography in setting the structure of the global ocean circulation, and played a major role in suggesting links between changes in continental topography and climate, continuing a long-term interest in the role of oceanic heat transport in determining global climate. Dr. Bryan was a lead author of the "Transient Climate Change" section of the 1989 scientific assessment report to the

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to advance scientific knowledge about climate change caused by human activities. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) a ...

.World Meteorological Organization/United Nations Environmental Programme. (28–30 June 1989). Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Nairobi, Kenya. p.8. Retrieved 30 August 2014. https://www.ipcc.ch/meetings/session02/second-session-report.pdf Bryan has been awarded the

Maurice Ewing William Maurice "Doc" Ewing (May 12, 1906 – May 4, 1974) was an American geophysicist and oceanographer. Ewing has been described as a pioneering geophysicist who worked on the research of seismic reflection and refraction in ocean basi ...

Medal of the

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's act ...

for his contributions to the field of ocean science.

Notable scientific papers

* * Manabe, S.; Bryan, K. (1969),
Climate Calculation with a combined ocean-atmosphere model
" Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 26(4), 786–789, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1969)026<0786:CCWACO>2.0.CO;2 * *

References

External links

* http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/breakthroughs/climate_model/welcome.html#model * http://www.agu.org/inside/honors.html#Ewing * http://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/bibliography/results.php?author=1003
Oral History interview transcript with Kirk Bryan on 20 December 1989, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryan, Kirk American oceanographers 1929 births Living people Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sverdrup Gold Medal Award Recipients