VORTEX PATCH DYNAMICS IN A COASTAL CURRENT

In barotropic quasi-geostrophic approximation with constant Coriolis p arameter the twoparameter stationary vortex patch (VP) family is const ructed numerically for the coastal potential flow initiated in the hal f-plane by the balanced source-sink system on the boundary. It is show n that the ''moment'' model describes sufficiently good the stationary state dependence on the control parameters. VP structure stability an d their reaction to the transport change are demonstrated using contou r dynamics method. The typical cases of the VP passing through coastal zone in the strait vicinity are considered.