Observation of Semi-diurnal Internal Tides and Near-inertial Waves at the Shelf Break of the East China Sea

Abstract

Semi-diurnal internal tides and near-inertial waves are investigated using moored current meter measurements at four sites along the shelf break of the East China Sea during August 1987 and May-June 1988. Each mooring is equipped with four current meters spanning from near surface to near bottom. Spectral analyses of all current data reveal dominant spectra at the semi-diurnal frequency band, where the upper and lower current measurements show out-of-phase relationship between them with significant coherences. These are consistent with typical characteristics of the first-mode semi-diurnal internal tide. Strong intensification of the near-bottom baroclinic currents is observed only at one site, where the ratio of the bottom slope to the slope of the internal-wave characteristics at the semi-diurnal frequency is close to unity. An energetic near-inertial wave event is observed during the first half of May-June 1988 observation at two mooring sites. Rotary spectra reveal that the most dominant signal is clockwise rotating motion at the near-inertial frequency band. Upward phase and downward energy propagations, shown in time-depth contour plots of near-inertial bandpass filtered currents, are confirmed by cross correlations between the upper- and lower-layer current measurements. The upward-propagating phase speed is estimated to be about 0.13 cm s−1 at both sites. Significant coherences and in-phase relationships of near-inertial currents at the same or similar depths between the two sites are observed in spite of their long distance of about 110 km.