Modelling internal solitary waves on the Australian North West Shelf

Abstract

The transformation of the non-linear internal tide and the consequent development of internal solitary waves on the Australian North West Shelf is studied numerically in the framework of the generalised rotation-modified Korteweg–de Vries equation. This model contains both non-linearity (quadratic and cubic), the Coriolis effect, depth variation and horizontal variability of the density stratification. The simulation results demonstrate that a wide variety of non-linear wave shapes can be explained by the synergetic action of non-linearity and the variability of the hydrology along the wave path.