Oceans and coastal zones
The East and South China Seas, the Sulu Sea, and the Andaman Sea the sea areas, where the most intense internal wave are encountered in the WorldÔÇÖs ocean. Internal waves are of relevance, among others, for off-shore activities since they can disrupt offshore exploration and drilling operations, for the propagation of sound in the ocean, since internal waves can disturb the propagation of acoustic signals, and for the transport of nutrient-rich water to the sea surface in coastal zones causing there plankton growth. Although much research was carried out in the last years on the generation, propagation, refraction, interaction, and breaking of internal waves in these Asian seas, we aim at pushing this research further by using data from different sensors flown on recently launched satellites, in particular from the European satellites Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-3, and the Chinese satellite GF-3. These satellite data will be compared theoretical models, in particular, with the model developed by the Kan Zeng (the Chinese PI of this project) and co-workers on the relationship between internal wave amplitude and half-width of the internal solitary wave. Furthermore, we will explore more in more how internal solitary waves are detectable by the new high-resolution SAR altimeter SRAL onboard the Sentinel-3 satellites.
