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A new method to estimate phase speed and vertical velocity of internal solitary waves in the South China Sea

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Abstract

A new method of estimating the phase speed and vertical velocity of internal solitary waves (ISW) based on dynamic governing equations using Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) data was developed. This method was applied to a representative ISW case, which was captured in the South China Sea in the 2007 summer experiment. The result shows that this ISW had a phase speed of approximately 2.6 m s−1. This method provides an excellent alternative in estimating the phase speed of ISWs, especially useful in the absence of vertical stratification needed in solving the Korteweg–de Vries (KdV)-type equation, e.g., long-term mooring observation. Analyses show that the new method is fairly self-consistent, and it can be applied when only a part of the ISW observations is available. The computed vertical velocity of the ISW using the new method has a good agreement with the ADCP observations both in magnitude and pattern.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Yanwei Zhang and Dr. Junmin Meng for help with observed data and satellite image processing. This work was supported by the National High Technology Research and Development (863) Program of China (2008AA09A402), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-10-0764), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91028008, 40890153, 41176008, 41176010, 40776005).

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  1. Physical Oceanography Laboratory, Ocean University of China, 238 Songling Road, Qingdao, 266100, China

    Wei Zhao, Xiaodong Huang & Jiwei Tian

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  1. Wei Zhao
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  2. Xiaodong Huang
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  3. Jiwei Tian
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Correspondence to Wei Zhao.

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Zhao, W., Huang, X. & Tian, J. A new method to estimate phase speed and vertical velocity of internal solitary waves in the South China Sea. J Oceanogr 68, 761–769 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-012-0132-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-012-0132-x

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