Welcome to Changming Dong's Research Website  

---

Vorticity Generation in Island Wakes (collaborating with Dr. P. Sangra and Mr. E. Mason from Las Palmas University, Gran Canaria, Spain)



Oceanic Island wakes includes two aspects:

A. Oceanic response to wind wakes
     When wind blows past an island, in the lee side of the island, the wind intensity drops. There are two immediate effects on ocean: weak mixing
and wind shear at two edges of the island. The former one may introduce a warmer water in lee side of the island relative to the adjacent
area; and the latter one causes the Ekman pumping.

B. Oceanic current past an island(s)
     With the rotating and stratified oceanic flow past an island(s), the vortex can be generated through three different mechanims: lateral boundary,
bottom boundary and the barolcinic tilting. Three mechanims can be categorized into two types: deep water and shallow water. Centrifugal, barotropic
and baroclinic instability could be involved in the eddy generation and evolution.

With its round shape and sharp shelf slope, Gran Canaria Island (Spain) is an idealized laboratory to study island wakes.

With the existence of eight substantial islands,  Southern California Bight is also a nice field experiment to study island wakes.


This project is funded by NSF (2006.9-2009.8).

References:

• C. Dong, J. McWilliams, and A. Shchepetkin, 2006: Island Wakes in Deep Water, J. Phys. Oceanogr., in press.
• C. Dong and J. McWilliams, 2006:  A numerical study of island wakes in the Southern California Bight, Cont. Shelf Res., in press.

Current Researches:

1. Island wakes and their environmental impact.
2. High-resolution realistic simulation
3. Southern California Bight Circulation and Forecast System
4. Bering Sea Ice-Ecological-coupled System
5. Sediment Transport
6. Pollution (such as DDTs) Dispersion Water Quality Assessment