Three typhoon events were selected to examine the impact of energy transformation on near-inertial oscillations (NIOs) using observations from a subsurface mooring, which was deployed at 125° E and 18° N on 26 September 2014 and recovered on 11 January 2016. Almost 16 months of continuous observations were undertaken, and three energetic NIO events were recorded, all generated by passing typhoons. The peak frequencies of these NIOs, 0.91 times of the local inertial frequency f, were all lower than the local inertial frequency f. The estimated vertical group velocities (C_gz) of the three NIO events were 11.9, 7.4, and 23.0 m d⁻¹, and were relatively small compared with observations from other oceans (i.e., 100 m d⁻¹). The directions of the horizontal near-inertial currents changed four or five times between the depths of 40 and 800 m in all three NIO events, implying that typhoons in the northwest Pacific usually generate high-mode NIOs. The NIO currents were further decomposed by performing an empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis. The first and second EOF modes dominated the NIOs during each typhoon, accounting for more than 50% of the total variance. The peak frequencies of the first two EOF modes were less than f, but those of the third and fourth modes were higher than f. The frequencies of all the modes during non-typhoon periods were more than f. Our analysis indicates that the relatively small downward group velocity was caused by the frequent direction changes of the near-inertial currents with depth.

Characteristics of near-inertial waves (NIWs) induced by the tropical storm Noul in the South China Sea are analyzed based on in situ observations, remote sensing, and analysis data. Remote sensing sea level anomaly data suggests that the NIWs were influenced by a southwestward moving anticyclonic eddy. The NIWs had comparable spectral density with internal tides, with a horizontal velocity of 0.14–0.21 m/s. The near-inertial kinetic energy had a maximum value of 7.5 J/m³ and propagated downward with vertical group speed of 10 m/day. Downward propagation of near-inertial energy concentrated in smaller wavenumber bands overwhelmed upward propagation energy. The e-folding time of NIWs ranged from 4 to 11 days, and the larger e-folding time resulted from the mesoscale eddies with negative vorticity. Modified by background relative vorticity, the observed NIWs had both red-shifted and blue-shifted frequencies. The upward propagating NIWs had larger vertical phase speeds and wavelengths than downward propagating NIWs. There was energy transfer from the mesoscale field to NIWs with a maximum value of 8.5 × 10⁻⁹ m² s⁻³ when total shear and relative vorticity of geostrophic currents were commensurate. Our results suggest that mesoscale eddies are a significant factor influencing the generation and propagation of NIWs in the South China Sea.

Based on horizontal velocity data recorded by a moored acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) deployed on the southwestern continental slope of the East China Sea (ECS), this study investigates the characteristics of near-inertial waves (NIWs) induced by typhoon Mitag in October 2019. The results indicated that Mitag-induced near-inertial kinetic energy (NIKE) was mainly concentrated above 290 m and was subsurface-intensified; both the maximum velocity and kinetic energy of the NIWs occurred at a depth of 100 m and were 0.21 m/s and 23.01 J/m³, respectively. The rotary vertical wavenumber spectra suggested that both downward and upward energy propagation existed. However, upward energy propagation was much smaller than downward energy propagation, mainly in the 0.007–0.014 cpm wavenumber band. The NIWs had an e-folding timescale of 9.5 days and were red-shifted as a result of the Doppler shift of the Kuroshio. Normal mode analysis suggested that the NIWs were dominated by the first and fourth baroclinic modes, which together accounted for 76.7% of the total NIKE. Spectral analysis showed that although the spectral density of the semidiurnal internal tide (M₂) peak overwhelmed that of the NIWs by a factor of approximately 30, the shear strength generated by the NIWs was comparable to that of the semidiurnal internal tide (M₂), which plays an important role in upper ocean mixing on the southwestern continental slope of the ECS. In addition, the bicoherence analysis suggested that a harmonic wave (M₂–f) was generated via the nonlinear interaction between the NIWs and semidiurnal internal tide (M₂), which reflects the energy dissipation mechanism of semidiurnal tides and NIWs on the southwestern continental slope of the ECS.

Based on in situ observations, six episodes of near-inertial internal waves (NIWs) were detected on the East China Sea (ECS) continental slope, and the mechanisms and characteristics of them were examined. The generation mechanisms of the observed NIWs included typhoon, wind burst, lateral propagation, and energy transfer from low-frequency flow. The depth-integrated near-inertial kinetic energy (NIKE) showed no significant seasonal variation, and the annual mean NIKE and near-inertial currents were 400 J/m² and 3.50 cm/s, respectively. Downward propagation of NIKE was evident in the small wavenumber band according to the rotary vertical wavenumber spectra. The NIKE was subsurface-intensified, and the near-inertial vertical shear reached 0.01 s⁻¹. The vertical phase speeds of the NIWs ranged from 5 to 19 m/h. The frequencies of the NIWs were mostly red-shifted, however, blue-shift also existed. One episode had both blue- and red-shifted frequencies vertically, and had both upward and downward propagating vertical phase speeds. The e-folding times of the observed NIWs ranged from 4 to 11 days, which were influenced by successive wind bursts and background vorticity. On the left-hand side of Kuroshio, the background vorticity is usually positive; however, the NIWs were almost red-shifted, which resulted from the Doppler shift of the Kuroshio.

We report the direct and quantitative measurement of five significant near-inertial waves (NIWs) events observed by Lander at water depths of 600 m to 1100 m at 119°17′ E and 22°06′ N in the northern South China Sea from July to November 2017. We found that these five NIWs events lead to strong shearing, which plays an important role in deep water mixing. Each event corresponds to several different NIWs generation mechanisms. The results show that the NIWs events generated by typhoons were the most regular. This was caused by dispersive NIWs propagation over long periods of time and over long distances. NIWs formed by spontaneous generation do not have this feature. The strongest NIWs events during the observation period were caused by a combination of shelf wave attenuation and monsoon. This time, the signal was transmitted to the seabed, and the upward signal reflected in the meridional direction was found. The reflected signal was anisotropically affected by the seabed topography. A horizontally propagated NIWs event with relatively weak dispersion was also found in this study. Based on the topography, we suspect it was formed by the Lee wave, but we cannot provide any more useful evidence.

The semidiurnal internal tides (ITs) on the continental slope of the southeastern East China Sea (ECS) exhibited abrupt enhancement in November of 2017. This enhancement resulted from the intensification of the coherent semidiurnal ITs. Coherent and incoherent semidiurnal ITs had a comparative energy contribution in October; however, coherent semidiurnal ITs dominated with a variance contribution of 90% in November. The variance contribution of vertical modes of the semidiurnal ITs varied between October and November, and the mode with most variance contribution changed from the second mode to the first mode. Altimeter data and the observed background currents indicated that the Kuroshio mainstream meandered and abruptly intruded into the ECS in November. The upper layer background currents were significantly related to the kinetic energy of the semidiurnal ITs, and the correlation coefficient between them reached 0.81. The frequent occurrences of the Kuroshio intrusion have suggested that the ITs in the ECS are susceptible to the modulation of the Kuroshio current. Numerical modeling and predication of ITs should consider the meander of the Kuroshio mainstream.