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Nonlinear and nonhydrostatic internal waves in the South China Sea
PhD Student: Zhonghua Zhang
Satellite imagery demonstrates that internal waves are ubiquitous in the world's oceans (see internalwaveatlast.com), particularly in the South China Sea, where some of the largest internal waves have been observed. These waves are generated at the Luzon Strait on the eastern end of the South China Sea, and they propagate westward until they eventually dissipate on the Chinese Shelf, over 450 km away (see Figure 1). We are employing the SUNTANS model to simulate internal waves in the South China Sea to understand the physics that governs their generation, propagation, and dissipation characteristics.
Figure 1: Bathymetry of the South China Sea domain, showing depth in m.
Figure 2: Unstructured grid used by SUNTANS to simulate internal waves in the South China Sea.
This grid has a horizontal resolution of between 1 and 5 km, a vertical resolution of between 10 and 100m, and has a total of 12 million cells.
Figure 3: Simulation results showing the free-surface signature (depicted
by the red north-south bands in the middle and on the left) of
westward-propagating internal waves that were generated due to strong
tidal flows at the Batan and Babuyan Islands. Free-surface deflection
is in m above mean sea level.
This project is funded by the ONR Physical Oceanography program.
For more information please visit Zhonghua's web page.
Related publications:
O. B. Fringer and Z. Zhang, 2008, "High-Resolution Simulations of Nonlinear Internal Gravity Waves in the South China Sea", Proceedings of the DoD HPCMP Users Group Conference 2008, Article CSS - DoD HPCMP UGC 2008-9-10-57.
Zhang, Z., and O. B. Fringer, 2008, "Numerical simulation of the generation of nonlinear internal gravity waves in the South China Sea"", AGU Ocean Sciences Mtng., Orlando.
Z. Zhang and O. B. Fringer, 2007, "Nonhydrostatic effects of nonlinear internal wave propagation in the South China Sea", Eos Trans. AGU, 88 (23), Jt. Assem. Suppl., Abstract OS41A-06 (invited).
Z. Zhang and O. B. Fringer, 2006, "A Numerical Study of Nonlinear Internal Wave Generation in the Luzon Strait", Proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on Stratified Flows, pp 300-305.
Z. Zhang and O. B. Fringer, 2006, "Simulation of Nonlinear Internal Wave Generation in the Northeastern South China Sea", Eos Trans. AGU, 87(52), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract OS13A-1533.
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