Degradation of an internal wave beam by parametric subharmonic instability in an upper ocean pycnocline

Abstract

Numerical simulations are performed to investigate the interaction of a semidiurnal internal wave (IW) beam with the nonuniform stratification of an upper ocean pycnocline. During the initial stage of the interaction, higher harmonics originate after reflection of the IW beam at the caustic and are trapped in the pycnocline. In cases where the pycnocline thickness is sufficiently large (approximately larger than twice the dominant wavelength in the beam), the incoming beam undergoes a parametric subharmonic instability (PSI) during refraction through the pycnocline at later time. Consequently, there is significant energy transfer to subharmonic motions that exhibit exponential growth with a ..