Global in scope, his research has generated worldwide interest and attention. His research also has been highlighted on television, including ABC News, CNN and the BBC in Great Britain. Satellite sensors measure the wind and infrared instruments monitor temperature, while time-series photographs taken from the satellite can be used to study ocean dynamics.
Data also is collected by research vessels and ocean platforms.
One phenomenon studied extensively by Yan is El Nino, the major climate anomaly and planetary oscillation caused by the global interactions of the ocean and atmosphere, which occurs in the Pacific every four to five years and brings about extensive changes in the climate worldwide. Yan also is involved in studying the Delaware Bay, focusing on such areas as ocean circulation, as well as coastal, estuary currents and surface currents. His research is funded by the National Science Foundation, NASA, NOAA and the Office of Naval Research. A graduate of Tongchi University in Shanghai, Yan served as a remote sensing physicist for the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He received his doctorate from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, followed by post-doctoral work at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego, and came to the University in 1990.