Luwei Yang

I am a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Research School of Earth Sciences at The Australian National University. My research focuses on understanding how small-scale ocean processes, particularly internal waves, influence the large-scale circulation of the ocean and, ultimately, Earth's climate.

Internal waves are underwater waves that travel within the ocean rather than on its surface. They are generated by winds, tides, and ocean currents, and help transfer energy from large-scale ocean motions to smaller scales where turbulent mixing occurs. This mixing plays a fundamental role in regulating the ocean's circulation and climate. Because internal waves are too small to be represented directly in the global ocean models used for climate projections, their effects remain one of the major uncertainties in climate science. My research combines theory, numerical modelling, and observations to better understand how internal waves are generated, how they propagate through the ocean, and how they interact with their surrounding environment, with the aim of improving predictions of future climate change.