Three-dimensional simulations of wind effects on Green Island wake

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to apply the three-dimensional Princeton Ocean Model to study the wind effects on Kuroshio-induced island wake in the lee of Green Island, Taiwan. Numerical results indicate that the effect of NE winds squeezes the Kuroshio-induced island vortex street close to the coast and the SW winds tend to push the island vortex street farther away from the coast. The simulated vortex streets are analyzed by the dimensionless spatial lengths to quantify the prescribed feature. By comparing the three-dimensional results with different wind conditions,the Ekman transports are observed and the influence depths of wind effects are studied. Additionally,some cold eddies are found in temperature fields resulting from numerical simulations. These results are in qualitative agreement with field measurements and satellite images.