Publications

Lavrova, OY; Mityagina, MI; Sabinin, KD (2011). Study of internal wave generation and propagation features in non-tidal seas based on satellite synthetic aperture radar data. DOKLADY EARTH SCIENCES, 436(1), 165-169.

Abstract
Despite the intense attention paid to internal wave (IW) investigation, the most experimentally studied and theoretically described are internal gravitational waves in shelf zones of oceans and tidal seas appearing during the interaction of tidal currents with the margin of the shelf. Information on surface manifestations of internal waves in enclosed seas, such as the Black and Caspian seas, is almost absent. In this paper, the results of study of the peculiarities of generation and propagation of nontidal internal waves are presented; the study is carried out on the basis of combined analysis in data of marine surface radiolocation and data of optical and infrared satellite-borne sensors. The experimental basis of investigation is radar images of the marine surface derived with the help of Synthetic Aperture Radars, onboard the Envisat and ERS-2 satellites. Additionally, the data of the following sensors belonging to the optical and infrared ranges were used for the purpose of radar image interpretation: MODIS (onboard the Aqua/Terra satellite), MERIS (Envisat), and AVHRR (NOAA). Surface manifestations of IWs in the northeastern part of the Black Sea and in the Caspian Sea have been found in radar imagery for the first time, their pattern of spatial and temporal variation has been reconstructed. The possible factors leading to generation of the observed nontidal IWs are determined and suppositions about the corresponding generation mechanisms are made. In particular, the IW manifestations recorded in the northeastern part of the Black Sea are localized in the vicinity of the boundaries of eddies or hydrological fronts; this fact evidences for the frontal mechanism of generation, at which IWs are radiated by a nonstationary (moving and/or inertially oscillating) front. The most probable main sources of generation of IWs detected in the Caspian Sea are longitudinal one-knot seiches, whose knot point is located near the Apsheron sill.

DOI:
10.1134/S1028334X11010272

ISSN:
1028-334X