Vorticity Generation in the Wake of an Island with Shelf Slope

Changming Dong and James McWilliams
IGPP/UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA

The Regional Oceanic Model System (ROMS) is used to investigate the mechanism of vorticity generation by an island with shelf slope. An idealized island shape with shelf slope is configured with a stratified and rotating flow passing the island. Numerical results show that the mechanism of eddy generation in the wake of the island with the shelf slope is different from our previous study of deep-water island wake: uneven-distributed bottom viscous stress becomes important in the eddy generation, associated with vortex stretching and baroclinic vertical tilting. In order to isolate the bottom stress from baroclinic vertical tilting, a slippery bottom is used in the numerical experiments.