Shoaling of the internal solitary waves over the continental shelf of the northern South China Sea

QIAN Hongbao; HUANG Xiaodong; TIAN Jiwei; ZHAO Wei

doi:10.1007/s13131-015-0734-4

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Article Navigation > Acta Oceanologica Sinica > 2015 > 34(9): 35-42

QIAN Hongbao, HUANG Xiaodong, TIAN Jiwei, ZHAO Wei. Shoaling of the internal solitary waves over the continental shelf of the northern South China Sea[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 2015, 34(9): 35-42. doi: 10.1007/s13131-015-0734-4

Citation:

QIAN Hongbao, HUANG Xiaodong, TIAN Jiwei, ZHAO Wei. Shoaling of the internal solitary waves over the continental shelf of the northern South China Sea[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 2015, 34(9): 35-42. doi: 10.1007/s13131-015-0734-4

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Shoaling of the internal solitary waves over the continental shelf of the northern South China Sea

doi: 10.1007/s13131-015-0734-4

1.
Physical Oceanography Laboratory, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China;The Administrative Centre for China's Agenda 21, Beijing 100089, China
2.
Physical Oceanography Laboratory, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China

Received Date: 2014-11-23
Rev Recd Date: 2015-02-12

Abstract

Abstract

The activities of internal solitary waves (ISWs) over the continental shelf of the northern South China Sea (SCS) are of high complexity. In this study, we investigated the spatial-temporal characteristics of the shoaling ISWs over the northern SCS continental shelf using the satellite images and the results of numerical simulation. The examination of the ISW signals in the satellite optical images revealed the existence of three types of ISWs in the region north to the Dongsha Island, namely, mode-1 depression ISW, mode-1 elevation ISW, and mode-2 convex ISW. The geographical distributions of these ISWs were derived from the satellite images. Numerical results exhibited the process of polarity conversion of ISWs, by which mode-1 elevation waves were transformed from the shoaling mode-1 depression waves. The mode-2 convex ISWs generally followed the mode-1 depression ISWs. The numerical results suggested that the interaction of the mode-1 depression ISWs with the up-slope topography locally generated mode-2 ISWs, and such waves of high vertical mode dissipated rapidly during the inshore propagation.
- internal solitary wave,
- nonlinear internal wave,
- South China Sea,
- vertical mode

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References(28)

References

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