Island wake detection in the western side of Vitilevu Island, Fiji.

The climatological mean and daily variation in sea surface temperature (SST) and sea surface winds (SSW) from 2018-2020 in Fiji waters were analyzed. This is the first of such studies investigating the island wake phenomenon in Fiji. The study was conducted on Vitilevu island, the main island of Fiji. This study aimed to investigate the occurrence of the island wake phenomenon on the western leeward side of Vitilevu island. The island wake may potentially occur due to the high topography on the eastern side with mountain peaks of about 1,300m in height blocking trade winds from inducing surface water mixing on the leeward side thus increasing heat storage and initiating the island wake phenomena. The island wake is investigated using GHRSST Lv. 4 daily data. We investigated 1,096 SST images, 217, 2020 and 241 cases of SST wake were found for 2018, 2019 and 2020 respectively. Wind was found to be the main factor inducing the occurrence of the SST wake, with the direction of the wake depending on the speed and direction of the wind. The occurrence of island wake was found to be dominant from November to April annually following the warm wet season in Fiji. The prevalence of the phenomenon on the leeward side of Vitilevu island may influence biological productivity in this area and requires further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]