Assessing the west ridge of Luzon Strait as an internal wave mediator

Abstract

The Luzon Strait is blocked by two meridional ridges at depths, with the east ridge somewhat higher than the west ridge in the middle reaches of the Strait. Previous numerical models identified the Luzon Strait as the primary generation site of internal M₂ tides entering the northern South China Sea (Niwa and Hibiya, 2004), but the role of the west-versus-east ridge was uncertain. We used a hydrostatic model for the northern South China Sea and a nonhydrostatic, process-oriented model to evaluate how the west ridge of Luzon Strait modifies westward propagation of internal tides, internal bores and internal solitary waves. The dynamic role of the west ridge depends strongly on the characteristics of internal waves and is spatially inhomogeneous. For M₂ tides, both models identify the west ridge in the middle reaches of Luzon Strait as a dampener of incoming internal waves from the east ridge. In the northern Luzon Strait, the west ridge is quite imposing in height and becomes a secondary generation site for M₂ internal tides. If the incoming wave is an internal tide, previous models suggested that wave attenuation depends crucially on how supercritical the west ridge slope is. If the incoming wave is an internal bore or internal solitary wave, our investigation suggests a loss of sensitivity to the supercritical slope for internal tides, leaving ridge height as the dominant factor regulating the wave attenuation. Mechanisms responsible for the ridge-induced attenuation are discussed.