Welcome to ODYLAB!

This is an academic web page for sharing my researches with anyone who may be interested. ODYLAB stands for Ocean Dynamics Laboratory, or for Ocean Dynamics in Matlab since I develop ocean models in Matlab . My current research interests include tides, storm surges, tsunamis, and general water level variations, in the context of navigation safty, climate change, and natural hazards. Two labs can be visited here: VTG Lab and Tsunami Lab.

VTG stands for Virtual Tide Gauge. A VTG is a mathematical transfer function to transfer astronomical and atmospheric global forcing fields to a time series of water level responses at a point of interest (POI). While a Physical Tide Gauge (PTG) can only record water levels up to present, a VTG can not only hindcast but also forecast water levels, in the same forecast length as weather forecasts (6 days for now). A VTG's parameters are trained by (short-term) observed data through data assimilation technique (least-squares fittings), which then makes it possible to realistically forecast water levels at a POI. Maintaining a PTG in a remote area or harsh environment can be costly or infeasible, a VTG is a good substitute. Currently we are engaged with a VTG project, which aims to develop 150 VTGs in three Canadian coasts (eastern, Western and northen) for Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) to operate. In he VTG lab, you will gain a bird's view of the VTG project, as well as some of VTGs which are already in real-time operation.

Tsunami Lab presents two web-based real-time simulation systems for the India-Pacific Oceans and for the North Atlantic Ocean respectively. Each of the system can simulate tsunami arrivals at one or several points of interest (POIs), with the source region located anywhere either in the India-Pacific Oceans or in the North Atlantic Ocean. One can perform various tsunami propagation experiments by first specifying an arbitrary polygon for a source, and then choosing one or several points of interest; a window will then pop up in a few seconds, showing a 12-hour time series of arrival curve(s) at the point(s) of interest.