Premium
Fate of Internal Waves on a Shallow Shelf
Author(s) -
Davis Kristen A.,
Arthur Robert S.,
Reid Emma C.,
Rogers Justin S.,
Fringer Oliver B.,
DeCarlo Thomas M.,
Cohen Anne L.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: oceans
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9291
pISSN - 2169-9275
DOI - 10.1029/2019jc015377
Subject(s) - internal wave , internal tide , geology , submarine pipeline , water column , waves and shallow water , shoaling and schooling , reflection (computer programming) , oceanography , surf zone , breaking wave , geophysics , wave propagation , physics , quantum mechanics , computer science , programming language
Internal waves strongly influence the physical and chemical environment of coastal ecosystems worldwide. We report novel observations from a distributed temperature sensing (DTS) system that tracked the transformation of internal waves from the shelf break to the surf zone over a narrow shelf slope region in the South China Sea. The spatially continuous view of temperature fields provides a perspective of physical processes commonly available only in laboratory settings or numerical models, including internal wave reflection off a natural slope, shoreward transport of dense fluid within trapped cores, and observations of internal rundown (near‐bed, offshore‐directed jets of water preceding a breaking internal wave). Analysis shows that the fate of internal waves on this shelf—whether transmitted into shallow waters or reflected back offshore—is mediated by local water column density structure and background currents set by the previous shoaling internal waves, highlighting the importance of wave‐wave interactions in nearshore internal wave dynamics.