Generation, propagation, and breaking of internal solitary waves

Tidal, two-layer flow over topography generates a kink of the interface separating an upstream interfacial elevation from a depression above the topography. Upstream undular bores and solitary waves of large amplitude are generated from the interfacial kink. The waves propagate upstream when the tide turns. Interfacial simulations of this kind of generation process fit with the observations at Knight Inlet in British Columbia, in the Sulu Sea experiment, and undular bores generated by internal tides in the Strait of Gibraltar. Fully nonlinear interfacial computations compare successfully with experimental observations of solitary waves in the laboratory and in the field for wave amplitudes ranging from small to maximal values. The waves exhibit only minor sensitivity to a finite thickness of the pycnocline. Analytical solitary waves are recaptured in the small amplitude limit. Shear-induced breaking appears first in the top part of the pycnocline and is expressed in terms of the Richardson number. Convective breaking in the top part of the water column occurs beyond a threshold amplitude when a pronounced stratification continues all the way to the ocean surface.