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Effects of tidal currents on nonlinear internal solitary waves in the South China Sea

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Abstract

The propagation and fission process of internal solitary waves (ISWs) with amplitudes of about 170 m are simulated in the northeast of the South China Sea (NSCS) by using the generalized Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation under continuous stratification. More attention is paid to the effects of the ebb and flood background currents on the fission process of ISWs. This kind of background current is provided by the composed results simulated in terms of monthly mean baroclinic circulation and barotropic tidal current. It is found that the obtained relation of the number of fission solitons to the water depth and stratification is roughly in accordance with the fission law derived by Djordjevic and Redekopp in 1978; however, there exists obvious difference between the effects of the ebb and flood background currents on the wave-lengths of fission solitons (defined as the distance between two neighboring peaks of ISWs). The difference in nonlinearity coefficient α between the ebb and flood background currents is a main cause for the different wave-lengths of fission solitons.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Physical and Environmental Oceanography, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266100, P. R. China

    Zhisong Fan & Peiliang Li

  2. Beijing Branch of CNOOC Energy Technology and Services Limited, Beijing, 100027, P. R. China

    Xingang Shi

  3. Ocean Sciences Branch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, MD20771, USA

    Antony K. Liu

  4. State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, P. R. China

    Hailong Liu

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  1. Zhisong Fan
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  2. Xingang Shi
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Correspondence to Zhisong Fan.

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Fan, Z., Shi, X., Liu, A.K. et al. Effects of tidal currents on nonlinear internal solitary waves in the South China Sea. J. Ocean Univ. China 12, 13–22 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-013-1870-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-013-1870-0

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