Intensive Internal Waves with Anomalous Heights in the Black Sea Shelf Area

Abstract

A train of internal waves ~16 m in height and 101–131 m in length, abnormally large for the Black Sea, is studied. The measurements have been conducted in the water area near Gelendzhik using a towed Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP), an RBR concerto hydrological miniprobe, and a moored thermistor string and applying the spatial spectral analysis of a radar satellite image obtained at the moment of sea-truth measurements. Registered anomalous internal waves have a nonlinear character (soliton-like shapes of wave profiles, amplitude dispersion, changing distance between the crests, etc.). Vertical components of orbital current velocities in the internal waves reach 0.20 m/s. Quasimonochromatic spectral maxima due to the surface manifestations of internal waves having lengths corresponding to those measured by ADCP were registered using the satellite radar image. The source of this internal wave train with such anomalous amplitude was a cold atmospheric front and related low-pressure region.