Energy transfer from internal solitary waves to turbulence via high-frequency internal waves: seismic observations in the northern South China Sea

Meng, Linghan; Song, Haibin; Guan, Yongxian; Yang, Shun; Zhang, Kun; Liu, Mengli

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-31-477-2024

Articles | Volume 31, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-31-477-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Turbulence, wave–current interactions, and other nonlinear...

https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-31-477-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 31, issue 4

Research article

| Highlight paper

|

21 Oct 2024

Research article | Highlight paper |

| 21 Oct 2024

Energy transfer from internal solitary waves to turbulence via high-frequency internal waves: seismic observations in the northern South China Sea

Linghan Meng, Haibin Song, Yongxian Guan, Shun Yang, Kun Zhang, and Mengli Liu

Data sets

World Ocean Database 2018 (https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/world-ocean-database) T. P. Boyer et al. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/2020-04/wod_intro_0.pdf

CCHDO Hydrographic Data Archive CCHDO Hydrographic Data Office https://doi.org/10.6075/J0CCHDT8

NASA Worldview application NASA Worldview https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov

Short summary

With seismic data, we observed high-frequency internal waves (HIWs) with amplitudes of around 10 m. A shoaling thermocline and gentle slope suggest that HIWs result from fission. Remote sensing data support this. Strong shear caused Ri below 0.25 over 20–30 km, indicating instability. HIWs enhance mixing, averaging 10^-4 m²s^-1, revealing a new energy cascade from shoaling waves to turbulence, and enhancing our understanding of energy dissipation and mixing in the northern South China Sea.