Estimating depth of polarity conversion of shoaling internal solitary waves in the northeastern South China Sea

Internal Solitary Wave (ISW) normally converts its polarity from depression wave to elevation wave during shoaling process. This phenomenon has been verified by model studies and field observations. However, through the comparison between theoretical studies and observations, we find that Extended Kortweg-de Vries (EKdV) theory, often used by numerical simulations, cannot well predict the polarity conversion area of shoaling ISWs. Here we trace seismic reflectors within the water column, captured by exploration seismic data, and systematically analyze the polarity conversion area of the shoaling ISWs in the northeastern South China Sea (SCS). The results show that the ISWs in the northeastern SCS generally begin to convert their polarities from depression to elevation waves at the seafloor depth of about 200 m, and turn into elevation waves at the seafloor depth of about 100 m. The ISWs between depression and elevation waves are newly defined as transition waves, which are distributed between the seafloor depth of 130 m and 220 m; while elevation waves are distributed between 80 m and 120 m. We compared the observation with the theoretical critical conversion depth estimation by the two-layer model based on EKDV equation. The result suggests that the depth of the upper layer in the two-layer model can be selected as the depth of the maximum buoyancy frequency not the base of the mixing layer. Such selection can get better estimation of critical conversion depth of shoaling ISWs. Our analysis also suggests that the polarity conversion process is amplitude-dependent. The ratio of amplitude to depth for elevation waves is more than two times larger than that of the transition waves. This implies that the seafloor plays a more important role in shallow water than in deep water in controlling the amplitudes of ISWs during shoaling process.