Generation of interfacial solitons by internal-wave beams
| Project acronym: | |
| Name of Group Leader: | T. Gerkema, ROYAL NETHERLANDS INSTITUTE FOR SEA RESEARCH, Netherlands, gerk@nioz.nl |
| User-Project Title: | Generation of interfacial solitons by internal-wave beams |
| Facility: | Coriolis platform |
| Proceedings TA Project: | Generation of interfacial solitons by internal-wave beams |
| Data Management Report: | Data Management Reports Page You will need to login to view this page |
Summary:
Internal waves in fluids owe their existence to the restoring forces of gravity (in a stably stratified fluid) and the Coriolis force (in rotating fluids). Examples are the inertio-gravity waves in the ocean, a special class of which are those at tidal frequency (internal tides), which are generated by barotropic tidal flow over largescale topography, such as the continental slope. Internal waves propagate not only horizontally but also vertically, the energy being usually concentrated in diagonal beams. In the ocean, it has been found that when such a beam impinges on the seasonal thermocline (a shallow layer where temperature decreases rapidly with depth), the beam may lose part of its energy to high-frequency solitary waves, so-called internal solitons [2,10,11,12]; this phenomenon is referred to as “local generation of solitons”. For this mechanism to occur, the vertical structure of the water column needs to be built up as follows: a constantly stratified lower layer, an upper mixed layer, and a sharp transition in density between the two. This sharp transition is called a pycnocline, and may be either due to strong temperature gradients (thermocline), as in the ocean, or salinity gradients (halocline), as in the experiments proposed here. Click here for further information about this project on the CNRS website.
| Publication References |
| Reflecting tidal wave beams and local generation of solitary waves in the ocean thermocline, J. Fluid Mech. [subm.] T.R. Akylas, R.H.J. Grimshaw, S.R. Clarke & A. Tabaei 2006. |
| On the generation and propagation of internal solitary waves in the southern Bay of Biscay, Deep-Sea Res. I, 53, 927-941. A. Azevedo, J.C.B. da Silva & A.L. New 2006. |
| Physics of Solitons, Cambridge University Press.T. Dauxois, M. Peyrard 2006. |
| Internal and interfacial tides: beam scattering and local generation of solitary waves, J. Mar. Res. 59 (2), 227-255. T. Gerkema 2001. |
| A novel internal waves generator, Experiments in Fluids 42, 123-130. L. Gostiaux, H. Didelle, S. Mercier & T. Dauxois 2007. |
| Internal-tide attractors in laboratory and numerical experiments, [in prep.] L. Gostiaux, T. Gerkema, J. Sommeria & U. Harlander 2007. |
| Long nonlinear internal waves, Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech. 38, 395-425. K.R. Helfrich & W.K. Melville 2006. |
| Wave attractors: linear yet nonlinear, Int. J. Bifurc. Chaos, 15, 2757-2782. L.R.M. Maas 2005. |
| Generation of weakly nonlinear nonhydrostatic internal tides over largetopography: a multi-modal approach, Nonlinear Process. Geophys. [subm.] R. Maugé & T. Gerkema 2007. |
| Remote-sensing evidence for the local generation of internal soliton packets in the central Bay of Biscay, Deep-Sea Res. I. 49, 915-934. A.L. New & J.C.B. da Silva 2002. |
| Large-amplitude internal soliton packets in the central Bay of Biscay, Deep-Sea Res. 37, 513-524. A.L. New & R. D. Pingree 1990. |
| Local generation of internal soliton packets in the central Bay of Biscay, Deep-Sea Res.39, 1521-1534. A.L. New & R. D. Pingree 1992. |
| Generation of second mode solitary waves by the interaction of a first mode soliton with a sill, Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics 8: 223–239.V. I. Vlasenko and K. Hutter 2001. |