Laboratory experiments on vortices colliding with multiple islands

Laboratory experiments have been performed to investigate the physical processes that govern the interaction of a self-propagating barotropic cyclonic vortex with aligned circular cylinders. The motivation was to understand the dynamics which controls the interaction of North Brazil Current (NBC) rings with the Lesser Antilles (LA) in the Eastern Caribbean Sea. The geometrical parameter regulating the flow in the experiments was the ratio of the gap size to the diameter of the incident vortex, G /d. The range 0.03 ≤ G /d ≤ 0.4 was studied. Since the passages of the LA have values of 0.07 ≤ G /d ≤ 0.3 [2], the experimental results might explain recent oceanic observations [3]. (© 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)