Three-dimensional evolution of internal waves reflected from a submarine seamount

Abstract

The interaction between internal waves and submarine seamounts is three-dimensional (3D). In this work, we conduct laboratory experiments to investigate the role of the three-dimensional seamount on the reflection of internal waves. Experimental results show that the energy of internal waves is focused after the reflection and the phase of the internal wave front become curved. The energy of the focusing region was nearly 2 times as that of the scattering region. There is a strong internal wave induced mean flow whose strength is nearly as high as 50% of that of the reflected internal wave. The mean flow was generated by the variation of the velocity amplitude in both the x axis and y axis. These results indicate that the reflection from the 3D seamount could lead to a complex spatial distribution of the internal wave and a different energy conversion process.