Current observations at two moorings in the northern South China Sea reveal that mesoscale eddies can transfer energy with near-inertial oscillations (NIOs). Numerical experiments are conducted to investigate important parameters affecting energy transfer between mesoscale eddies and NIOs, which demonstrate that the energy transferred by mesoscale eddies is larger with stronger winds and higher strength of the mesoscale eddy. Anticyclonic eddies can transfer more energy than cyclonic eddies.

Global offshore wind power development is moving from offshore to deeper waters, where floating offshore wind turbines have an advantage over bottom-fixed turbines. However, current wind farm parameterization schemes in mesoscale models are not applicable to floating turbines. We propose a floating wind farm parameterization scheme that accounts for the attenuation of the significant wave height by floating turbines. The results indicate that it has a significant effect on the power output.

Assessing environmental impacts of wind farms requires an accurate parameterization of wind farms in atmospheric models, which, in our study, is improved considering the wind turbine wake. Based on an engineering wake model of a turbine, a wake superposition coefficient and an angle correction coefficient are proposed, calculated and added in the model. Sensitivity experiments reveal that, with enlarged grid size and shortened turbine spacing, the new scheme shows more advantages.

Motivated by the recent field observations of the eddy tilting structure in the South China Sea, a simple theoretical analysis and a numerical model (MITgcm) are used to investigate the mechanism of the vertical structure tilt of a mesoscale eddy on the β-plane. The model results correspond well with the theoretical analysis and the results indicate that the β-effect, nonlinear advection, and ocean stratification are important factors in controlling the vertical structure of a mesoscale eddy.

Motivated by eddy-splitting near Dongsha island, the eddy's trajectory and the effect of topography on eddy evolution were explored using the MITgcm. Warm eddies propagate to the southwest while cold eddies propagate to the northwest in open oceans. The results of the model indicate that the eddy would split in a qualitative range, and the location of the eddy split-off is related to the island size. In addition, eddy-splitting is an important way to transform energy between different scales.