Observation of internal waves in the East China Sea

Abstract

High-frequency internal waves are observed from the velocity data of two bottom moored ADCPs with a 9.2 km distance in the outer shelf region of the East China Sea in July 2016. Solitary wave-like features emerged preceding higher frequency internal waves in many cases. Wave packets generally appeared with period of diurnal tide. The expected direction of wave propagation indicates that the internal waves generated near the shelf break. The estimated propagation velocity of internal waves from two ADCP data sets is about 0.6~0.7 m/sec which is slower than the propagation speed calculated based on the radar images of the ship (Matsuno et al., 2017). internal waves in many cases. Wave packets generally appeared with period of diurnal tide. The expected direction of wave propagation indicates that the internal waves generated near the shelf break. The estimated propagation velocity of internal waves from two ADCP data sets is about 0.6~0.7 m/sec which is slower than the propagation speed calculated based on the radar images of the ship (Matsuno et al., 2017).