Internal wave characteristics at the ASIAEX site in the east China Sea

The characteristics of internal waves (IWs) observed during the Asian Sea International Acoustics Experiment 2001 in the East China Sea are presented in this paper. Temperature data from a 17-element thermistor chain exhibit clear IW features in shallow water. Large-amplitude oscillations, up to 35 m, are noted due to the semi-diurnal internal tides. High-frequency (HF) and narrow-bandwidth IW trains around 6 c/h ride on semi-diurnal IWs. The spectrum of vertical displacement of the IWs, calculated from the thermistor chain data, falls as /spl omega//sup -1.6/ in the frequency band of 0.1-4 c/h. For higher frequencies (>6 c/h), the spectrum falls as /spl omega//sup -3.0/. Vertical coherence of the IWs for both semi-diurnal internal tides and HF IWs is analyzed. Comparisons of our observations with other data, obtained from SWARM95, the Barents Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico, display some common characteristics of shallow-water IWs.