Internal waves on continental and island shelves of the open ocean: A comparative analysis for observations on the New York and Hawaii shelves

Abstract

Based on the results of processing experimental data obtained from measurements of current velocities and water temperatures on the United States Atlantic Shelf and near the Hawaii Islands (the island of Oahu and Mamala Bay), we perform a comparative analysis of the characteristics of internal waves in these representative areas of continental and island shelves of the ocean. These investigations indicate that the internal-wave fields in these areas are very different from one another in both the low- and high-frequency ranges. On the Atlantic Shelf, we have regularly observed tandems of powerful internal solitons clearly seen on space imagery of the oceanic surface. On the island shelves, soliton-type internal waves were less seldom seen as very specific oscillations. The absence of surface manifestations of even powerful solitons in Mamala Bay is explained both by the large pycnocline depth and by the fact that the vertical structure of these solitons is controlled by the second rather than the first mode, as it is on the Atlantic Shelf.