Welcome to Modeling Methods for Marine Science. The main purpose of this book is to give you, as ocean scientists, a basic set of tools to use for interpreting and analyzing data, for modeling, and for scientific visualization. Skills in these areas are becoming increasingly necessary and useful for a variety of reasons, not the least of which are the burgeoning supply of ocean data, the ready availability and increasing power of computers, and sophisticated software tools. In a world such as this, a spreadsheet program is not enough. We don't expect the reader to have any experience in programming, although you should be comfortable with working with computers and web browsers. Also, we do not require any background in sophisticated mathematics; undergraduate calculus will be enough, with some nodding acquaintance with differential equations. However, much of what we will do will not require expertise in either of these areas. Your most valuable tool will be common sense.

Resources

The activities of modeling, data analysis, and scientific visualization are closely related, both technically and philosophically, so we thought it important to present them as a unified whole. Many of the mathematical techniques and concepts are identical, although often masked by different terminology. You'll be surprised at how frequently the same ideas and tools keep coming up.