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Abstract: Nonlinear internal waves (NLIWs) exhibit robust dynamic submesoscale motions, connecting large-scale tides to small-scale shear instabilities in the ocean. Previous studies have mainly focused on their generation mechanisms and evolution along their paths. Considering their global distribution resulting from the primary origin in tide-topography interaction, there is an increasing cross-disciplinary interest in understanding how these energetic and ubiquitous NLIWs contribute to sediment redistribution in the ocean. This paper presents fundamental theories on NLIWs and comprehensively reviews triggering mechanisms, different types of instability, and sediment responses by summarizing recent theoretical parameterizations, numerical simulations, laboratory experiments, and in-situ observations. We specifically focus on elucidating various types of instability along with their impact on sediment dynamic processes. Finally, we outline several unresolved issues that require further exploration for a quantitative investigation into NLIW-induced sediment transfer in the ocean.
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Figure 1. Identification of nonlinear internal waves (NLIWs) in the global ocean using 250 m resolution MODIS satellite observations from the Terra and Aqua missions of the Earth Observing System of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from 2002 to 2004 (Jackson, 2007). The yellow shaded region shows the northeast South China Sea (SCS).
Figure 2. Sketch diagrams of mode-1 (depression and elevation) and mode-2 (convex and concave) nonlinear internal waves within a three-layer fluid structures [revised according to Kurkina et al., 2015 and Yang et al. (2010)].
Figure 3. Instability mechanisms for mode-1 depression nonlinear internal waves. a. Shear instability and b. convective instability [revised according to Lamb (2014)]. Type of instability and its position are for the mode-1 depression NLIW with rightward phase speed C and horizontal velocity U. c. Kelvin-Helmholtz billows driven by shear instability [revised according to Moum et al. (2003)]. d. Trapped cores driven by convective instability. The simulated trapped core is exhibited in the left corner [revised according to Chang et al. (2021a) and Rivera-Rosario et al. (2020)]. e and f. Dissipation rate of shear instability and convective instability [revised according to Zhang and Alford (2015)].
Figure 4. Schematic diagrams of instability mechanisms for mode-1 depression and elevation nonlinear internal waves (NLIWs) over flat bottom and slope during shoaling (revised according Boegman and Stastna, 2019). a and b. Instability and current of mode-1 depression NLIW. c and d. Instability and current of mode-1 elevation NLIW. e. Instability of the shoaling NLIW. f. Instability of the upslope-propagating boluses.
Figure 5. In-situ observations of the instability induced by shoaling nonlinear internal waves (NLIWs). a and b. Instability of mode-1 depression NLIWs with steeper trailing edges [revised according to Zhang and Alford (2015)]. c and e. Instability of mode-1 elevation NLIWs with steeper leading edges [revised according to Klymak and Moum (2003) and Jones et al. (2020)].
Figure 6. In-situ observations of sediment resuspension by nonlinear internal waves. a and b. Sediment resuspension by mode-1 depression NLIWs [revised according to Zulberti et al. (2020)]. c. Sediment resuspension by mode-1 elevation NLIWs [revised according to Klymak and Moum (2003)].
Figure 7. Schematic diagrams of the formation of bottom nepheloid layer (BNL) and intermediate nepheloid layer (INL) by shoaling nonlinear internal waves (NLIWs) in transmissive regions (revised according to [Tian et al. (2019)]. a. One BNL and multiple INLs formed from shoaling depression NLIWs. α is group velocity vector of NLIWs, γ is slope gradient, and γ/α < 1 means transmissive regions. b. Resuspension process by shoaling NLIWs on the slope. Sediment is first resuspended by horizontal velocity (①), and then lifted by vertical velocity into the water column (②).
Figure 8. Nonlinear internal waves (NLIWs) in the northeast South China Sea (SCS). a. Packets of NLIWs observed in satellite images acquired from 1995 to 2001 in the SCS [revised according to Zhao et al. (2004)]. Barotropic tidal phases are marked for K1 (M2) components by red (blue) solid lines, when numbers represent phase angles. b. Sketch diagram of NLIWs evolution in the SCS including generation, propagation, shoaling, and turbulence dissipation, turbulence processes are presented by vortices in gray, the maximum depth-integrated dissipation rate is marked to the Dongsha Plateau [revised according to St Laurent et al. (2011)].
Figure 9. Schematic diagrams of seafloor transformation by nonlinear internal waves (NLIWs). a. Sediment resuspension and bedforms of sand waves, scour channels and sediment waves on the slope [revised according to Tian et al. (2021)]. b. Profile of the asymmetrical sand waves. Parameters of wave height H, wavelength L, project length of the gentle slope L1, and project length of the steep slope L2, angle of gentle slope α (H/L1), angle of steep slope β (H/L2) are marked.
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