Seasonal Variability of Internal Tides Northeast of Taiwan

Abstract

The spatial-temporal characteristics of the barotropic tides and internal tides (ITs) northeast of Taiwan Island are examined, based on a 1-year mooring current observations from May 23, 2017 to May 19, 2018. The results of harmonic tidal analysis show that the barotropic tides are dominated by semidiurnal tides, which is mainly controlled by M 2 tidal components. Moreover, the vertical structures of diurnal and semidiurnal ITs show that the semidiurnal IT shows notable seasonal variation, whereas seasonal variations of the diurnal IT energy is not significant. The semidiurnal IT energy in winter half year is twice that in summer half year. The seasonal variation of semidiurnal IT is mainly modulated by the direction change of the current rather than by the topographic features and stratification. In summer (winter) half year cyclonic (anti-cyclonic) eddies meanly control at this point, so the flow direction is mainly in the southwest (northeast) direction, causing the background flow to flow along (perpendicular to) the isobath. When crossing the isobath, the ITs are generated by the interaction of the barotropic tide and the topography, resulting in the increase of the tidal energy in the winter half year.