Average Climatic Characteristics of Internal Waves in the Sea of Japan Based on the WOA18 Atlas

Physical Oceanography. 2023. Vol. 30. No. 5. P. 563–580.

Kokoulina M. V., O. E. Kurkina, Talipova T. G., A. A. Kurkin, E. N. Pelinovsky

Purpose. The study is aimed at constructing the atlas, or a set of charts, for kinematic and nonlinear parameters of internal waves of the lowest mode in the Sea of Japan for mapping the region according to possible wave forms, and for determining polarities (elevation or depression) and limiting amplitudes of solitary internal waves.
Methods and Results. Based on hydrological data for the long-term average seasons derived from the climatological atlas WOA18, the seasonal features of density stratification of the Sea of Japan waters and the related kinematic and nonlinear parameters of internal waves governed by the environment are considered. For this purpose, the numerical solutions of a linear boundary value problem for internal waves are constructed that results in determining the wave phase velocities and the vertical structure (mode) of the wave fields for each calculation point. This basis allows numerical construction of the remaining characteristics, namely, the dispersion parameter, the quadratic and cubic nonlinearity parameters which make it possible to classify the localized non-radiating internal waves.
Conclusions. The atlas is intended both for express assessing the internal wave characteristics, forecasting possible scenarios of their generation and transformation, and for more detailed modelling of their propagation. The estimates obtained can also be used to analyse the effect of internal waves on the propagation of acoustic signals in the water column, the redistribution of suspended particles including nutrients and living organisms, and the transport of bottom sediments.

Keywords: внутренние волны, internal waves