The nonlinear evolution of internal tides. Part 1: the superharmonic cascade

Abstract

In non-uniform stratification, horizontally propagating internal waves with the vertical structure of a single mode self-interact to excite superharmonics. Baker & Sutherland (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 891, 2020, R1) showed that a vertical mode-1 parent wave of sufficiently small amplitude dominantly excites a vertical mode-1 superharmonic with double the horizontal wavenumber. Through theory, assuming a parent wave of sufficiently small amplitude, they showed that the superharmonics grew and decayed periodically due to the parent forcing frequency being off-resonant with the natural frequency of the superharmonic. Here, we extend this theory to allow for larger parent wave amplitudes and/or stronger resonant forcing, as would occur at lower latitudes, where the influence of background rotation is small. The resulting coupled system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations is shown to well predict the evolution of the internal tide as determined in fully nonlinear numerical simulations. With strong nonlinear forcing, successive superharmonics grow to non-negligible amplitudes in what we call the ‘superharmonic cascade’. The phase relationship between the superharmonics is such that when superimposed, the internal tide transforms into a solitary wave train, consistent with the predictions of well-established shallow-water models, particularly that of the Ostrovsky equation, which is an extension of the Korteweg–de Vries equation accounting for background rotation. This work thus gives new insight into internal solitary wave generation. The model equations have less restrictive assumptions than models based upon shallow-water theory, and because they are quickly solved, these provide a potentially powerful new tool to examine the nonlinear evolution of the internal tide.