Zhang Yu

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Last Name
Zhang
First Name
Yu
ORCID
0000-0001-6183-0612

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Now showing 1 - 17 of 17
  • Article
    Physical modeling and validation of porpoises' directional emission via hybrid metamaterials
    (Oxford University Press, 2019-07-22) Dong, Erqian ; Zhang, Yu ; Song, Zhongchang ; Zhang, Tianye ; Cai, Chen ; Fang, Nicholas X.
    In wave physics and engineering, directional emission sets a fundamental limitation on conventional simple sources as their sizes should be sufficiently larger than their wavelength. Artificial metamaterial and animal biosonar both show potential in overcoming this limitation. Existing metamaterials arranged in periodic microstructures face great challenges in realizing complex and multiphase biosonar structures. Here, we proposed a physical directional emission model to bridge the gap between porpoises’ biosonar and artificial metamaterial. Inspired by the anatomical and physical properties of the porpoise's biosonar transmission system, we fabricated a hybrid metamaterial system composed of multiple composite structures. We validated that the hybrid metamaterial significantly increased directivity and main lobe energy over a broad bandwidth both numerically and experimentally. The device displayed efficiency in detecting underwater target and suppressing false target jamming. The metamaterial-based physical model may be helpful to achieve the physical mechanisms of porpoise biosonar detection and has diverse applications in underwater acoustic sensing, ultrasound scanning, and medical ultrasonography.
  • Article
    Universal structure of mesoscale eddies in the ocean
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2013-07-30) Zhang, Zhengguang ; Zhang, Yu ; Wang, Wei ; Huang, Rui Xin
    Mesoscale eddies dominate oceanic kinetic energy at sub-inertial frequencies. Their three-dimensional structure has, however, remained obscure, hindering better understanding of eddy dynamics. Here by applying the composite analysis of satellite altimetry and Argo float data to the globe, we show that despite remarkable regional differences in amplitude, extent and polarity, etc., mesoscale eddies have a universal structure in normalized stretched coordinates. Horizontally, the associated pressure anomaly is well described by a function of the normalized radial distance from the eddy center R(rn)=(1−rn2/2)• exp(−rn2/2), whereas vertically it is sinusoidal in a stretched coordinate zs = ƒ z0 (N/f )dz, where N and f are the buoyancy frequency and the Coriolis parameter.
  • Article
    Studies of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago water transport and its relationship to basin-local forcings : results from AO-FVCOM
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2016-06-25) Zhang, Yu ; Chen, Changsheng ; Beardsley, Robert C. ; Gao, Guoping ; Lai, Zhigang ; Curry, Beth ; Lee, Craig M. ; Lin, Huichan ; Qi, Jianhua ; Xu, Qichun
    A high-resolution (up to 2 km), unstructured-grid, fully coupled Arctic sea ice-ocean Finite-Volume Community Ocean Model (AO-FVCOM) was employed to simulate the flow and transport through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA) over the period 1978–2013. The model-simulated CAA outflow flux was in reasonable agreement with the flux estimated based on measurements across Davis Strait, Nares Strait, Lancaster Sound, and Jones Sounds. The model was capable of reproducing the observed interannual variability in Davis Strait and Lancaster Sound. The simulated CAA outflow transport was highly correlated with the along-strait and cross-strait sea surface height (SSH) difference. Compared with the wind forcing, the sea level pressure (SLP) played a dominant role in establishing the SSH difference and the correlation of the CAA outflow with the cross-strait SSH difference can be explained by a simple geostrophic balance. The change in the simulated CAA outflow transport through Davis Strait showed a negative correlation with the net flux through Fram Strait. This correlation was related to the variation of the spatial distribution and intensity of the slope current over the Beaufort Sea and Greenland shelves. The different basin-scale surface forcings can increase the model uncertainty in the CAA outflow flux up to 15%. The daily adjustment of the model elevation to the satellite-derived SSH in the North Atlantic region outside Fram Strait could produce a larger North Atlantic inflow through west Svalbard and weaken the outflow from the Arctic Ocean through east Greenland.
  • Article
    Numerical-modeling-based investigation of sound transmission and reception in the short-finned pilot whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus)
    (Acoustical Society of America, 2021-07-12) Song, Zhongchang ; Zhang, Jinhu ; Ou, Wenzhan ; Zhang, Chuang ; Dong, Lijun ; Dong, Jianchen ; Li, Songhai ; Zhang, Yu
    The sound-transmission, beam-formation, and sound-reception processes of a short-finned pilot whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus) were investigated using computed tomography (CT) scanning and numerical simulation. The results showed that sound propagations in the forehead were modulated by the upper jaw, air components, and soft tissues, which attributed to the beam formation in the external acoustic field. These structures owned different acoustic impedance and formed a multiphasic sound transmission system that can modulate sounds into a beam. The reception pathways composed of the solid mandible and acoustic fats in the lower head conducted sounds into the tympano-periotic complex. In the simulations, sounds were emitted in the forehead transmission system and propagated into water to interrogate a steel cylinder. The resulting echoes can be interpreted from multiple perspectives, including amplitude, waveform, and spectrum, to obtain the acoustic cues of the steel cylinder. By taking the short-finned pilot whale as an example, this study provides meaningful information to further deepen our understanding of biosonar system operations, and may expand sound-reception theory in odontocetes.
  • Article
    Possible limitations of dolphin echolocation: a simulation study based on a cross-modal matching experiment
    (Nature Research, 2021-03-23) Wei, Chong ; Hoffmann-Kuhnt, Matthias ; Au, Whitlow W. L. ; Ho, Abel Zhong Hao ; Matrai, Patricia A. ; Feng, Wen ; Ketten, Darlene R. ; Zhang, Yu
    Dolphins use their biosonar to discriminate objects with different features through the returning echoes. Cross-modal matching experiments were conducted with a resident bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus). Four types of objects composed of different materials (water-filled PVC pipes, air-filled PVC pipes, foam ball arrays, and PVC pipes wrapped in closed-cell foam) were used in the experiments, respectively. The size and position of the objects remained the same in each case. The data collected in the experiment showed that the dolphin’s matching accuracy was significantly different across the cases. To gain insight into the underlying mechanism in the experiments, we used finite element methods to construct two-dimensional target detection models of an echolocating dolphin in the vertical plane, based on computed tomography scan data. The acoustic processes of the click’s interaction with the objects and the surrounding media in the four cases were simulated and compared. The simulation results provide some possible explanations for why the dolphin performed differently when discriminating the objects that only differed in material composition in the previous matching experiments.
  • Thesis
    Slope/shelf circulation and cross-slope/shelf transport out of a bay driven by eddies from the open ocean
    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2009-09) Zhang, Yu
    Interaction between the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and the continental slope/shelf in the Marguerite Bay and west Antarctic Peninsula is examined as interaction between a wind-driven channel flow and a zonally uniform slope with a bay-shaped shelf to the south. Two control mechanisms, eddy advection and propagation of topographic waves, are identified in barotropic vortex-escarpment interactions. The two mechanisms advect the potential vorticity (PV) perturbations in opposite directions in anticyclone-induced interactions but in the same direction in cyclone-induced interactions, resulting in dramatic differences in the two kinds of interactions. The topographic waves become more nonlinear near the western(eastern if in the Northern Hemisphere) boundary of the bay, where strong cross-escarpment motion occurs. In the interaction between a surface anticyclone and a slope penetrating into the upper layer in a two-layer isopycnal model, the eddy advection decays on length scales on the order of the internal deformation radius, so shoreward over a slope that is wider than the deformation radius, the wave mechanism becomes noticeably significant. It acts to spread the cross-isobath transport in a much wider range while the transport directly driven by the anticyclone is concentrated in space. A two-layer wind-driven channel flow is constructed to the north of the slope in the Southern Hemisphere, spontaneously generating eddies through baroclinic instability. A PV front forms in the first layer shoreward of the base of the topography due to the lower-layer eddy-slope interactions. Perturbed by the jet in the center of the channel, the front interacts with the slope/shelf persistently yet episodically, driving a clockwise mean circulation within the bay as well as crossisobath transport. Both the transports across the slope edge and out of the bay are comparable with the maximum Ekman transport in the channel, indicative of the significance of the examined mechanism. The wave-boundary interaction identified in the barotropic model is found essential for the out-of-bay transport and responsible for the heterogeneity of the transport within the bay. Much more water is transported out of the bay from the west than from the east, and the southeastern area is the most isolated region. These results suggest that strong out-of-bay transport may be found near the western boundary of the Marguerite Bay while the southeastern region is a retention area where high population of Antarctic krill may be found.
  • Article
    Seasonal and interannual variability of the Arctic sea ice : a comparison between AO-FVCOM and observations
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2016-11-25) Zhang, Yu ; Chen, Changsheng ; Beardsley, Robert C. ; Gao, Guoping ; Qi, Jianhua ; Lin, Huichan
    A high-resolution (up to 2 km), unstructured-grid, fully ice-sea coupled Arctic Ocean Finite-Volume Community Ocean Model (AO-FVCOM) was used to simulate the sea ice in the Arctic over the period 1978–2014. The spatial-varying horizontal model resolution was designed to better resolve both topographic and baroclinic dynamics scales over the Arctic slope and narrow straits. The model-simulated sea ice was in good agreement with available observed sea ice extent, concentration, drift velocity and thickness, not only in seasonal and interannual variability but also in spatial distribution. Compared with six other Arctic Ocean models (ECCO2, GSFC, INMOM, ORCA, NAME, and UW), the AO-FVCOM-simulated ice thickness showed a higher mean correlation coefficient of ∼0.63 and a smaller residual with observations. Model-produced ice drift speed and direction errors varied with wind speed: the speed and direction errors increased and decreased as the wind speed increased, respectively. Efforts were made to examine the influences of parameterizations of air-ice external and ice-water interfacial stresses on the model-produced bias. The ice drift direction was more sensitive to air-ice drag coefficients and turning angles than the ice drift speed. Increasing or decreasing either 10% in water-ice drag coefficient or 10° in water-ice turning angle did not show a significant influence on the ice drift velocity simulation results although the sea ice drift speed was more sensitive to these two parameters than the sea ice drift direction. Using the COARE 4.0-derived parameterization of air-water drag coefficient for wind stress did not significantly influence the ice drift velocity simulation.
  • Article
    Cross-shelf and out-of-bay transport driven by an open-ocean current
    (American Meteorological Society, 2011-11-01) Zhang, Yu ; Pedlosky, Joseph ; Flierl, Glenn R.
    This paper studies the interaction of an Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC)–like wind-driven channel flow with a continental slope and a flat-bottomed bay-shaped shelf near the channel’s southern boundary. Interaction between the model ACC and the topography in the second layer induces local changes of the potential vorticity (PV) flux, which further causes the formation of a first-layer PV front near the base of the topography. Located between the ACC and the first-layer slope, the newly formed PV front is constantly perturbed by the ACC and in turn forces the first-layer slope with its own variability in an intermittent but persistent way. The volume transport of the slope water across the first-layer slope edge is mostly directly driven by eddies and meanders of the new front, and its magnitude is similar to the maximum Ekman transport in the channel. Near the bay’s opening, the effect of the topographic waves, excited by offshore variability, dominates the cross-isobath exchange and induces a mean clockwise shelf circulation. The waves’ propagation is only toward the west and tends to be blocked by the bay’s western boundary in the narrow-shelf region. The ensuing wave–coast interaction amplifies the wave amplitude and the cross-shelf transport. Because the interaction only occurs near the western boundary, the shelf water in the west of the bay is more readily carried offshore than that in the east and the mean shelf circulation is also intensified along the bay’s western boundary.
  • Article
    Observational and model studies of the circulation in the Gulf of Tonkin, South China Sea
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2013-12-03) Ding, Yang ; Chen, Changsheng ; Beardsley, Robert C. ; Bao, Xianwen ; Shi, Maochong ; Zhang, Yu ; Lai, Zhigang ; Li, Ruixiang ; Lin, Huichan ; Viet, Nguyen Trung
    Moored current measurements were made at one mooring site in the northern Gulf of Tonkin for about 1 year during 1988–1989. Analyses were performed to examine characteristics and variability of tidal and subtidal flows. Rotary spectra showed two peaks at diurnal and semidiurnal periods, with higher diurnal energy. Complex demodulations of diurnal and semidiurnal tidal currents indicated that the tidal current magnitudes varied significantly with seasons: more energetic in the stratified summer than in the vertically well-mixed winter. The observed subtidal currents were highly correlated with the surface wind in winter but not in summer; challenging the conceptual summertime anticyclonic circulation pattern derived using wind-driven homogenous circulation theory. The computed currents from a global ocean model were in good agreement with the observed currents. Similar to the current observations, the model-computed flow patterns were consistent with the conceptual wind-driven circulation pattern in winter but opposite in summer. Process-oriented experiments suggest that the summertime cyclonic circulation in the northern Gulf of Tonkin forms as a result of the combination of stratified wind-driven circulation and tidal-rectified inflow from Qiongzhou Strait. The interaction between the southwest monsoon and buoyancy-driven flow from Hong River can significantly intensify the cyclonic circulation near the surface, but its contribution to the vertically averaged flow of the cyclonic circulation is limited.
  • Article
    Triad instability of planetary rossby waves
    (American Meteorological Society, 2007-08) Zhang, Yu ; Pedlosky, Joseph
    The triad instability of the large-scale, first-mode, baroclinic Rossby waves is studied in the context of the planetary scale when the Coriolis parameter is to its lowest order varying with latitude. Accordingly, rather than remain constant as in quasigeostrophic theory, the deformation radius also changes with latitude, yielding new and interesting features to the propagation and triad instability processes. On the planetary scale, baroclinic waves vary their meridional wavenumbers along group velocity rays while they conserve both frequencies and zonal wavenumbers. The amplitudes of both barotropic and baroclinic waves would change with latitude along a ray path in the same way that the Coriolis parameter does if effects of the nonlinear interaction are ignored. The triad interaction for a specific triad is localized within a small latitudinal band where the resonance conditions are satisfied and quasigeostrophic theory is applicable locally. Using the growth rate from that theory as a measure, at each latitude along the ray path of the basic wave, a barotropic wave and a secondary baroclinic wave are picked up to form the most unstable triad and the distribution of this maximum growth rate is examined. It is found to increase southward under the assumption that triad interactions do not cause a noticeable decrease in the quantity of the basic wave’s amplitude divided by the Coriolis parameter. Different barotropic waves that maximize the growth rate at different latitudes have almost the same meridional length scale, on the order of the deformation radius. With many rays starting from different latitudes on the eastern boundary and with wavenumbers on each of them satisfying the no-normal-flow condition, the resulting two-dimensional distribution of the growth rate is a complicated function of the relative relations of zonal wavenumbers or frequencies on different rays and the orientation of the eastern boundary. In general, the growth rate is largest on rays originating to the north.
  • Article
    Sound pressure and particle motion components of the snaps produced by two snapping shrimp species (Alpheus heterochaelis and Alpheus angulosus)
    (Acoustical Society of America, 2021-11-03) Song, Zhongchang ; Salas, Andria K. ; Montie, Eric W. ; Laferriere, Alison Beth ; Zhang, Yu ; Mooney, T. Aran
    Snapping shrimps are pervasive generators of underwater sound in temperate and tropical coastal seas across oceans of the world. Shrimp snaps can act as signals to conspecifics and provide acoustic information to other species and even to humans for habitat monitoring. Despite this, there are few controlled measurements of the acoustic parameters of these abundant acoustic stimuli. Here, the characteristics of snaps produced by 35 individuals of two species, Alpheus heterochaelis and Alpheus angulosus, are examined to evaluate the variability within and between the species. Animals were collected from the wild and the sound pressure and particle acceleration were measured at 0.2, 0.5, and 1 m from individual shrimp in controlled laboratory conditions to address the snap properties at communication-relevant distances. The source and sound exposure levels (at 1 m) were not significantly different between these two species. The frequency spectra were broadband with peak frequencies consistently below 10 kHz. The particle acceleration, the sound component likely detectable by shrimp, was measured across three axes. The directional amplitude variation suggests that the particle motion of snaps could act as a localization cue. The amplitudes of the snap pressure and acceleration decreased with distance, yet the levels remained sufficient for the predicted detection range by nearby conspecifics.
  • Article
    3D structure of striations in the North Pacific
    (American Meteorological Society, 2021-11-30) Zhang, Yu ; Guan, Yu Ping ; Huang, Rui Xin
    Ocean striations are composed of alternating quasi-zonal band-like flows; this kind of organized structure of currents can be found in all the world’s oceans and seas. Previous studies have mainly been focused on the mechanisms of their generation and propagation. This study uses the spatial high-pass filtering to obtain the three-dimensional structure of ocean striations in the North Pacific in both the z coordinate and σ coordinate based on 10-yr averaged Simple Ocean Data Assimilation version 3 (SODA3) data. First, we identify an ideal-fluid potential density domain where the striations are undisturbed by the surface forcing and boundary effects. Second, using the isopycnal layer analysis, we show that on isopycnal surfaces the orientations of striations nearly follow the potential vorticity (PV) contours, while in the meridional–vertical plane the central positions of striations are generally aligned with the latitude of zero gradient of the relative PV. Our analysis provides a simple dynamical interpretation and better understanding for the role of ocean striations.
  • Preprint
    Investigation on acoustic reception pathways in finless porpoise (Neophocaena asiaorientalis sunameri) with insight into an alternative pathway
    ( 2018-10) Song, Zhongchang ; Zhang, Yu ; Mooney, T. Aran ; Wang, Xianyan ; Smith, Adam B. ; Xu, Xiaohui
    Sound transmission and reception are both vital components to odontocete echolocation and daily life. Here, we combine computed tomography (CT) scanning and Finite Element Modeling to investigate the acoustic propagation of finless porpoise (Neophocaena asiaorientalis sunameri) echolocation pulses. The CT scanning and FEM wave propagation model results support the well-accepted jaw-hearing pathway hypothesis and suggest an additional alternative auditory pathway composed of structures, mandible (lower jaw) and internal mandibular fat, with different acoustic impedances, which may also conduct sounds to the ear complexes. The internal mandibular fat is attached to the ear complex and encased by the mandibles laterally and anteriorly. The simulations show signals in this pathway initially propagate along the solid mandibles and are transmitted to the acoustically coupled soft tissue of the internal mandibular fat which conducts the stimuli posteriorly as it eventually arrives at ear complexes. While supporting traditional theories, this new bone-tissue-conduction pathway might be meaningful to understand the hearing and sound reception processes in a wide variety of odontocetes species.
  • Article
    Observed wintertime tidal and subtidal currents over the continental shelf in the northern South China Sea
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2014-08-19) Li, Ruixiang ; Chen, Changsheng ; Xia, Huayong ; Beardsley, Robert C. ; Shi, Maochong ; Lai, Zhigang ; Lin, Huichan ; Feng, Yanqing ; Liu, Changjian ; Xu, Qichun ; Ding, Yang ; Zhang, Yu
    Synthesis analyses were performed to examine characteristics of tidal and subtidal currents at eight mooring sites deployed over the northern South China Sea (NSCS) continental shelf in the 2006–2007 and 2009–2010 winters. Rotary spectra and harmonic analysis results showed that observed tidal currents in the NSCS were dominated by baroclinic diurnal tides with phases varying both vertically and horizontally. This feature was supported by the CC-FVCOM results, which demonstrated that the diurnal tidal flow over this shelf was characterized by baroclinic Kelvin waves with vertical phase differences varying in different flow zones. The northeasterly wind-induced southwestward flow prevailed over the NSCS shelf during winter, with episodic appearances of mesoscale eddies and a bottom-intensified buoyancy-driven slope water intrusion. The moored current records captured a warm-core anticyclonic eddy, which originated from the southwestern coast of Taiwan and propagated southwestward along the slope consistent with a combination of β-plane and topographic Rossby waves. The eddy was surface-intensified with a swirl speed of >50 cm/s and a vertical scale of ∼400 m. In absence of eddies and onshore deep slope water intrusion, the observed southwestward flow was highly coherent with the northeasterly wind stress. Observations did not support the existence of the permanent wintertime South China Sea Warm Current (SCSWC). The definition of SCSWC, which was based mainly on thermal wind calculations with assumed level of no motion at the bottom, needs to be interpreted with caution since the observed circulation over the NSCS shelf in winter included both barotropic and baroclinic components.
  • Article
    Shelf circulation and cross-shelf transport out of a bay driven by eddies from an open-ocean current. Part I : interaction between a barotropic vortex and a steplike topography
    (American Meteorological Society, 2011-05) Zhang, Yu ; Pedlosky, Joseph ; Flierl, Glenn R.
    This paper examines interaction between a barotropic point vortex and a steplike topography with a bay-shaped shelf. The interaction is governed by two mechanisms: propagation of topographic Rossby waves and advection by the forcing vortex. Topographic waves are supported by the potential vorticity (PV) jump across the topography and propagate along the step only in one direction, having higher PV on the right. Near one side boundary of the bay, which is in the wave propagation direction and has a narrow shelf, waves are blocked by the boundary, inducing strong out-of-bay transport in the form of detached crests. The wave–boundary interaction as well as out-of-bay transport is strengthened as the minimum shelf width is decreased. The two control mechanisms are related differently in anticyclone- and cyclone-induced interactions. In anticyclone-induced interactions, the PV front deformations are moved in opposite directions by the point vortex and topographic waves; a topographic cyclone forms out of the balance between the two opposing mechanisms and is advected by the forcing vortex into the deep ocean. In cyclone-induced interactions, the PV front deformations are moved in the same direction by the two mechanisms; a topographic cyclone forms out of the wave–boundary interaction but is confined to the coast. Therefore, anticyclonic vortices are more capable of driving water off the topography. The anticyclone-induced transport is enhanced for smaller vortex–step distance or smaller topography when the vortex advection is relatively strong compared to the wave propagation mechanism.
  • Article
    Biosonar signal propagation in the harbor porpoise's (Phocoena phocoena) head : the role of various structures in the formation of the vertical beam
    (Acoustical Society of America, 2017-06-07) Wei, Chong ; Au, Whitlow W. L. ; Ketten, Darlene R. ; Song, Zhongchang ; Zhang, Yu
    Harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) use narrow band echolocation signals for detecting and locating prey and for spatial orientation. In this study, acoustic impedance values of tissues in the porpoise's head were calculated from computer tomography (CT) scan and the corresponding Hounsfield Units. A two-dimensional finite element model of the acoustic impedance was constructed based on CT scan data to simulate the acoustic propagation through the animal's head. The far field transmission beam pattern in the vertical plane and the waveforms of the receiving points around the forehead were compared with prior measurement results, the simulation results were qualitatively consistent with the measurement results. The role of the main structures in the head such as the air sacs, melon and skull in the acoustic propagation was investigated. The results showed that air sacs and skull are the major components to form the vertical beam. Additionally, both beam patterns and sound pressure of the sound waves through four positions deep inside the melon were demonstrated to show the role of the melon in the biosonar sound propagation processes in the vertical plane.
  • Article
    Finite element simulation of broadband biosonar signal propagation in the near- and far-field of an echolocating Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)
    (Acoustical Society of America, 2018-05-02) Wei, Chong ; Au, Whitlow W. L. ; Ketten, Darlene R. ; Zhang, Yu
    Bottlenose dolphins project broadband echolocation signals for detecting and locating prey and predators, and for spatial orientation. There are many unknowns concerning the specifics of biosonar signal production and propagation in the head of dolphins and this manuscript represents an effort to address this topic. A two-dimensional finite element model was constructed using high resolution CT scan data. The model simulated the acoustic processes in the vertical plane of the biosonar signal emitted from the phonic lips and propagated into the water through the animal's head. The acoustic field on the animal's forehead and the farfield transmission beam pattern of the echolocating dolphin were determined. The simulation results and prior acoustic measurements were qualitatively extremely consistent. The role of the main structures on the sound propagation pathway such as the air sacs, melon, and connective tissue was investigated. Furthermore, an investigation of the driving force at the phonic lips for dolphins that emit broadband echolocation signals and porpoises that emit narrowband echolocation signals suggested that the driving force is different for the two types of biosonar. Finally, the results provide a visual understanding of the sound transmission in dolphin's biosonar.