The model I use

So, to model the movement of the water I mentioned a few posts ago, I am using a model called SI3D. This stands for semi-implicit three-dimensional. I won't go into what semi-implicit means. SI3D was created at UC Davis in 1997 by Pete Smith. Its creation earned Pete his PhD. Pete now works at the USGS (United States Geological Survey) in Sacramento. He mostly applies the model to the San Francisco Bay Delta.

After Pete graduated, Francisco Rueda came to UC Davis and further developed SI3D. In particular, he added water temperature as one of the state variables. Pete's model was mostly used for the movement of the water and was sufficient for most estuary applications. However, water temperature greatly affects how water moves, especially in large lakes, so by adding water temperature, the model could be applied to a greater number of systems. Francisco used the model on Lake Tahoe and Clear Lake. But, Pete continued to use his model, without temperature.

Francisco's addition of temperature to the model earned him a PhD. After he graduated, he did a post-doc at Cornell (he left Cornell a few months before I go there). After Cornell, he moved here to Granada to become a professor. So, SI3D has two different forms and is used in Sacramento, Ithaca, NY and Granada, Spain.

After Francisco graduated, SI3D was not used very much at Davis. Mostly because none of the funding agencies were willing to fund a three-dimensional model. Modeling in three-dimensions takes more computer time, so the entire project takes more time, making it more expensive. And in some cases, one or two dimensional models are sufficient. For example, a river is usually very well mixed, meaning that from the surface to the bottom, the water has the same properties. So, the up-down direction of the model is a waste of time.

I started at UC Davis in June 2004, 3 years after Francisco left.