SPATIAL EVOLUTION OF NEAR-BOTTOM COLD-WATER LENSES ON THE SHELF OF THE SEA OF JAPAN

Abstract

The propagation and disintegration of nonlinear internal waves at the hydrophysical test site of the Pacific Oceanological Institute FEB RAS on the shelf of the Sea of Japan have been studied in the summer-autumn period for a number of years. The mechanisms of generation and propagation of nonlinear internal wave trains due to internal tide decay have been determined by continuous measurements of the vertical temperature and velocity distribution at depths of 20–60 m using bottom stations and by a regular study of the distributions of the main hydrodynamic characteristics along selected paths. In addition, other short-period sources of thermocline deformation have been detected that can be attributed to the propagation of bottom and surface vortex structures. The high spatiotemporal resolution of the temperature field in the neighborhood of bottom stations made it possible to reveal the fine structure of wave perturbations of various types. Multilayer shallow-water models for wave-train propagation have been developed and verified using the results of field and laboratory experiments.