SIEVING NONLINEAR INTERNAL WAVES IN SATELLITE IMAGES

Nonlinear internal waves (NLIW) were studied as a unusual phenomena in the ocean decades ago. As the quality, quantity and variety of satellite images improve over decades, it is founded that NLIW is a ubiquitous phenomenon. Over the continental shelf of northern South China Sea (SCS), both optical and microwave images show that there are trains of NLIW packets near Dongsha Atoll (20.7N, 116.8E). Each packet contains several NLIW fronts. These NLIW packets are nearly parallel to each other and they are refracted, reflected or diffracted by the change of ocean bottom topography. Based on Korteweg de Vries (KdV) theory and the assumption that the bright/dark lines in the satellite images are centers of convergence/divergence of NLIW fronts, one may (1) sort NLIW packets in the same satellite image into groups of the same source, but generated at different tidal cycles, (2) relate NLIW packets in consecutive satellite images of one day apart, (3) locating faint signals of NLIW fronts in a satellite image. The NLIWs travel more than 100 km/day near Dongsha Atoll, with higher speed in deeper water. The bias and standard deviation of predicted location of NLIW front from its true location is about 1% and 5.1%, respectively.