Abstract
Numerous internal solitary waves (ISWs) have been observed in the southern Andaman Sea. In this study, the two-dimensional Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model is applied to investigate the dynamics of ISWs and explore the effects of the bottom topography and tidal forcing on the generation and propagation of ISWs in the southern Andaman Sea. The results show that the large-amplitude depression ISWs are mainly generated via the oscillating tidal flow over the sill of the Great Channel, and the generation of ISWs is subject to the lee wave regime. The Dreadnought Bank cannot generate ISWs itself; however, it can enhance the amplitudes of eastward-propagating ISWs generated from sill A, owing to constructive interference of internal tide generation between the sill of the Great Channel and the Dreadnought Bank The eastward-propagating ISWs generated by the eastern shallow sill near the continental shelf can propagate to the shelf, where they evolve into elevation waves because of the shallow water Sensitivity runs show that both the semidiurnal and diurnal tides over the sill of the Great Channel can generate ISWs in this area. However, the ISWs generated by diurnal tides are much weaker than those generated by semidiurnal tides. Mixed tidal forcing has no significant effect on the generation of ISWs.
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Acknowledgements
The numerical simulation is supported by the High Performance Computing Division and HPC managers of Wei Zhou and Dandan Sui in the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. This work was supported by the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. QYZDJ-SSW-DQC034), the Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou) (Grant No. GML2019ZD0304), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41521005, 41776007 and 41776008), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. ISEE2021-PY01), the Guangzhou Science and Technology Program (Grant No. 201804010373), the Guangdong Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 2020A1514010495), the Youth Science and Technology Innovation Talent of Guangdong TeZhi Plan (Grant No. 2019TQ05H519), the Pearl River S&T Nova Program of Guangzhou (Grant No. 201806010091), the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS (Grant No. 2018378), the LTO Independent Research Program (Grant No. LTOZZ2001), the Rising Star Foundation of SCSIO (Grant No. NHXX2019WL0201).
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Cai, S., Wu, Y., Xu, J. et al. On the generation and propagation of internal solitary waves in the southern Andaman Sea: A numerical study. Sci. China Earth Sci. 64, 1674–1686 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-020-9802-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-020-9802-8