Current Post: Lecturer in Ocean Modelling

Room Number: ENV 2.35

Telephone: 01603 593762 (+44 1603 593762)

Fax: 01603 591327 (+44 1603 591327)

Email: xiaoming.zhai@uea.ac.uk

Publications: EPrints Digital Repository

PhD Studentships Available The life cycle of wind-driven energy in the ocean

Research Interests
My main interest is the key physical processes in the ocean, and the role they play in global climate variability and change. My research relies on combining various tools: analytical dynamical theory, a hierarchy of numerical models, and available observations. Below are some of my recent research topics:

• Dynamics of the ocean general circulation
• The role of eddies in the ocean
• Internal waves and mixing processes
• Ocean energetics
• Climate dynamics

Biography

I became interested in the field of physical oceanography as a MSc student in the Department of Oceanography at Dalhousie University. After I finished my PhD there, I went to IFM-GEOMAR in Kiel for one year, working in the Theory and Modelling group as one of the institute-funded post-doctoral researcher. I joined the ocean group at the University of Oxford in 2009, and spent three years there as a PDRA. Since February 2012, I am a new Lecturer in Ocean Modelling in the School of Environmental Sciences at UEA.
 

Significant Publications

• Zhai, X., H. L. Johnson, D. P. Marshall, and C. Wunsch (2012) On the wind power input to the ocean general circulation. Journal of Physical Oceanography, in press.
• Saenko, O. A., X. Zhai, W. J. Merryfield, W. G. Lee (2012) The combined effect of tidally and eddy-driven diapycnal mixing on the large-scale ocean circulation. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 42, 526–538. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-11-0122.1
• Zhai, X., H. L. Johnson, and D. P. Marshall (2011) A model of Atlantic heat content and sea level change in response to thermohaline forcing. Journal of Physical Oceanography 24, 5619-5632.
• Greatbatch, R. J., X. Zhai, M. Claus, L. Czeschel, and W. Rath (2010) Transport driven by eddy momentum fluxes in the Gulf Stream Extension region. Geophysical Research Letters, 37, L24401, doi:10.1029/2010GL045473.
• Zhai, X., H. L. Johnson, and D. P. Marshall (2010) Significant sink of ocean eddy-energy near western boundaries. Nature Geoscience, 3, 608-612.
• Zhai, X., R. J. Greatbatch, C. Eden, and T. Hibiya (2009) On the loss of wind-induced near-inertial energy to turbulent mixing in the upper ocean. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 39, 3040-3045.
• Zhai, X., R. J. Greatbatch, and C. Eden (2007) Spreading of near-inertial energy in a 1/12 model of the North Atlantic Ocean. Geophysical Research Letters, 34, L10609, doi:10.1029/2007GL029895. (*AGU Highlighted paper*)
• Zhai, X., and R. J. Greatbatch (2007) Wind work in a model of the northwest Atlantic Ocean. Geophysical Research Letters, 34, L04606, doi:10.1029/2006GL028907.
• Zhai, X., R. J. Greatbatch and J. Zhao (2005) Enhanced vertical propagation of storm-induced near-inertial energy in an eddying ocean channel model. Geophysical Research Letters, 32, L18602, doi:10.1029/2005GL023643. (*AGU Highlighted paper*)

Page last updated 10 May 2012